


Shadow Op Akechi

by Guyden



Series: The Polyamorous Shenigains of the Inaba Detectives [3]
Category: Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona 5
Genre: Akechi also has run out of hate, Akechi says fuck politeness, Also some funny parallels, Canonical Character Death, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Holy fuck there are ALOT of tags, M/M, Multi, Not rly angst but Akechi regretting murder, Persona 5 Protagonist is from Inaba, Shadow Op Akechi, Slice of Life, So hes just sincere, Some Flashbacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:01:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 32,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26654842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Guyden/pseuds/Guyden
Summary: After Maruki's Dream bullshit, Akechi finds himself being hired by the Shadow Operative Specialized Investigation Team. What cases and adventures will he go on?
Relationships: (Not incest) - Relationship, Aigis & Narukami Yu, Aigis/Arisato Minato, Akechi Goro & Investigation Team, Akechi Goro & Narukami Yu, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist/Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi, Akechi Goro/Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi, Arisato Minako/Arisato Minato, Arisato Minako/Mochizuki Ryoji, Arisato Minato/Mochizuki Ryoji, Arisato Minato/Narukami Yu, Female Persona 3 Protagonist/Persona 4 Protagonist, Kurusu Akira/Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi, Persona 3 Protagonist/Persona 4 Protagonist, PolyIT
Series: The Polyamorous Shenigains of the Inaba Detectives [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1925881
Comments: 30
Kudos: 32





	1. Chapter 1

As Akechi started feeling sleepy on the helicopter, he smiled as he watched Akira doing his thing, saving Maruki from dying. ‘Golden boy to the end, funny.’ he thought. As he finally faded to black, his only thoughts were, ‘Is this what death feels like, am I finally dead? Well now that we kicked the ass of a wannabe god I can die- GOD FUCKING DAMNIT,’’ and then a light suddenly turned on, revealing himself to be in a dark room. It looked akin to an interrogation room. Suddenly, a door opened, with a young man in his twenties, with a big figure and obvious muscles, a black suit, and silver bowl hair along with glasses.

“Please tell me I’m dead and this is hell!” said Akechi.

“No, not exactly, you are alive Goro Akechi,” said the man.

“And are you Shido’s goon? Here to torture out some information before killing me?”

“No, in fact we are in the process of weeding Shido’s agents out.”

“Then who the hell are you?”

“Yu Narukami, Co-Leader of the Shadow Operatives. You clearly have heard of us, a group so secretive not even Shido himself knows how to get rid of us.”

“Ah, you, so why are you here? Why am I here?”

“Well better question, why did you suddenly appear here only today, you were supposed to be here months ago.”

“Killed god, or a therapist with god powers.”

“That explains, a lot actually.”

“Wait, you weren’t affected by that dream world bullshit?”

“No, we are called the Seekers of Truth for god sakes, we could easily see through another fog, even if that fog was that of fulfilled wishes.”

“Ok, now what do you want to know other than killing god?”

“Well, explain your story and why you committed the mental shutdowns.”

“Oh that? Simple, I was dealt a bad hand, got a single pair, and bet it all on a bad bet.”

“Explain.”  
And so Akechi did.

Flash Back

Akechi was scared, angry, afraid, lonely, hungry, and on the streets of Tokyo with nothing but a stolen phone, his bastard of a father’s name, and his tattered clothes. On the phone there was an app, red and black background with a black eye. He pressed on it. On it was a search bar and a separate tab with guides on how to use it. ‘Put in the name of someone, and a location, and a distortion.’ it said. 

It went into detail on what all of it meant. It had said that you could change people’s hearts if you went to their shadow and killed it, killing the bad part of themselves. He put in the name ‘Massayoshi Shido’ and it dinged. He put in Diet building, because that was where he aspired to work in. It dinged again. He thought for a moment, thought of recent quotes he had said, and said, “cruiser”.

The world shifted, he found himself on a large cruiser floating around a sunken Tokyo, Akechi found himself disgusted at how his father saw this place, and then decided to walk in. When he was walking through the cruiser trying to find his father’s shadow, he was surprised when he was shot in the arm by a shadow. Akechi yelled in pain, stumbling to get away from the shadow. The shadow persisted, and when he was shot in the arm again, he fell, and a voice spoke to him.

“So this is your justice? This is the end of a hero of justice? This is how it goes out?”

Goro internally screamed no, wanting to change his father's heart, for his mother, that maybe if this man loved her again she would come back.

“Is that your resolve? To change the hearts of the wicked to help the needy?”

Goro affirmed the voice’s claim. And the voice spoke back.

“Very well, if your justice is worth any risk, any danger. If your justice is worth bleeding, forge a contract with me.”

Akechi stood up, and as the voice spoke more words blue fire was forming a mask on his face.

“I am thou, thou art I, thy will betray any clergy, thy will take down any king, thy will end any one in the name of justice, thy will be the bow of justice that helps the needy, swear to me, swear that you will always abide by your justice, that you will abide by the justice you have sworn yourself to.”

“I swear,”

“Very good, now, tear off thy mask and call thy name, tear down the corrupt empires of your prince john! Tear down the false empires built off of bodies that your father has created! Call thy name!”

“ROBIN HOOD!” yelled Akechi, as he tore off his mask and blood came out. He used Robin Hood to stall the shadow and run off. As he finally got out of the cruiser he asked Robin Hood something.

“I think I have an idea on how to change Shido.”

“That is?” said Robin Hood.

“Well I noticed many areas needed clearance to access, and that only people who looked very important to Shido were given access.”

“This is going?”

“What if we get close to Shido so we can change his heart!”

“Brilliant plan! If this justice you seek will be fulfilled by this, we shall follow through.”

“Thank you Robin Hood, for helping me.”

“I would be a sham if thy left thou to die, I would be no better than prince john himself.”

“Heh, yea, so how should I get closer to him?”

“I don’t have an idea, maybe we can offer ourselves as research? I heard multiple times while we were wandering that he was looking into cognitive science.”

“Alright. Thank you for giving me this chance.”

Flash Forward

Yu Narukami stared at Akechi, eyes glaring at him, and Akechi looked at Yu with a bored glance.

“You're not lying.” said Narukami.

“Why would I? It’s not like I have a reason to, now, would you like to know what happens next?”

“yes, please explain.”

“So, I offered myself as a test subject to Shido, and explained what I had access to. He did a check to see if I was lying, and then assigned me to a researcher he privately funds.”

“Would that happen to be-”

“Yes the researcher was Wakaba Isshiki. To shorten the story I would say during my time researching with her, she was like a mother figure when she wasn’t researching with me. During my experimentations with her I unlocked Loki during a trip to the Metaverse where Robin Hood ran out of SP. Wakaba is one of the only people I regret killing, ever.”

“And why is that?”

“Most people I killed had palaces with distortions the size of Kaneshiro or Okumura, or were just obscenely bad people. Wakaba’s Shadow though, will forever haunt me. And the fact I put her daughter into a similar scenario of I will be another regret I have on the short list. I should get on to how I killed Wakaba though.”

“Please, go on.”

Flash Back

Shido had said very simply that his next experiment would be to drive a shadow psychotic. He said that Wakaba had volunteered and was ready to do it at a certain time.

Flash Forward

“And you believed him?”

“I was young, foolish, believed him easily, and Wakaba was not in the office at the time and I had no idea where she was. So yes, I believed him. Call me the fool of the decade if you want but I will get on with this.”

Flash Back

As he traveled in Mementos, he found Wakaba’s Shadow, it was muttering some things to itself, as it saw Akechi, she froze.  
“So, come to use it?”

“I was told to, anything you want to say?”

“I do, I forgive you.”

“Huh-”

“I forgive you for what you will do, I know what you will do and why you are doing it. Now please, do what you must,”

“It's just a normal experiment thou-”

“Just do it.”

“Ok, I guess?”

Akechi used Call of Chaos on Wakaba’s Shadow, and it’s words slowly became less intelligible.  
As Akechi left the Metaverse, he went to Shido’s Office. He walked in and told him it was done. Shido was pleased.

(Barrier)

“Your not lying, but this all happened hours before her accident, what happened?”

“Well, you see, she was extremely strong mentally and physically, and she continually fought off the effects, that is my hypothesis. Unfortunately, it caught up to her. And you know how that went.”

“What was your reaction?”

(Barrier)

When Akechi went into Shido’s office, he was expecting another experiment with Wakaba, Robin and Loki actually grew to like her and viewed her as someone like their mother. But when the security footage rolled, Akechi grew more and more horrified at what was shown. Wakaba got into a traffic accident, and Akechi knew this was his fault. Robin and Loki were horrified and infuriated with Shido. Loki and Robin hood agreed that Shido needed to be taken down. Goro mentally agreed and it took all of his strength to look as neutral as possible.

“Now, Akechi, you now must do this to whoever I order, or else your emancipation will be stripped of you, and you know where that will lead. Right?”

“Yes, Shido-sama. Is that all?”

“Yes, go Akechi, I will tell you your next orders later.”

When Akechi arrived into a public restroom, he punched the wall so hard it left a crack, and bruised on his fingers.

‘Why? Why must I be as bad as Shido? Why must I be a killer? Why was I so blind to believe him? Why did I-”

‘Goro, please, listen. We must not let her death be in vain. We must avenge her as well as our mother. We will avenge them. Please, just please calm down.’ said Robin Hood.

‘We are in too deep! If we disobey we will have our heads on a stick! We can’t hide in the metaverse, we can’t disobey, what can we do?’

‘Goro, we must wait, we must bide our time and follow orders until we can strike. We must strengthen ourselves to kill his shadow so we can change him. Please,” said Loki, uncharacteristically meek. 

‘Alright, alright, fine.’ said Goro, resigned to this.

‘I hope the daughter is alright,’ said Loki.

‘OH FUCK, HER KID!’ thought Akechi.

‘What do we do?’ asked Robin Hood.

‘Ughhh, what can we do?’ asked Akehi.

‘Maybe we can find wherever she was taken and make sure she is alright?’ suggested Robin Hood.

‘Yes, make sure she doesn’t become a fucking murderer. Sorry.’ said Loki.

‘No, I deserve it, it's fine.’ said Goro.

‘What if she figures out we killed her Mother?’ asked Robin Hood.

‘We make ourselves an easy villain.’ said Goro

‘Why?’ said Robin Hood.

‘Me believing Shido could have changed is what left me on this path. If she wants our guts chained to the gates of hell, so be it. That’ll be an easier thing for her rather than the question of whether her mother’s killer was actually a good person.’ thought Akechi.

‘I follow your logic,’ said Loki.

Flash Forward

Yu stared at him, “when did it all change?”

Goro thought for a second, “When I learned to fill in the role of detective prince, I began to change. I began to be corrupted, to be more of a puppet to Shido than ever before. I craved the praise he gave me, and I foolishly believed that tearing it all away when he was at the height of his power was a good idea.”

The rest of the interrogation went in the same way, Akechi explaining his side of the story with various comments about his foolishness.

“Alright, so, if I’m getting this right. You began with thinking you could change hearts by killing shadows. You learned Call of Chaos and accidently killed Wakaba Isshiki when you were fooled by Masayoshi Shido, left a body count the size of a small war all to get revenge on your father, and was fooled the entire time by him. You learned of the phantom thieves, you proceed to try and kill their leader. You grew affectionate for him but tried to kill off those feelings. You felt jealous of him and how easy he had it, friends flocking to him like flies. It ended up with you trying to shoot him in the interrogation room, failing, and trying and failing to kill the thieves while using a call of chaos on yourself. Then you tried turning yourself in, then this Dream Reality happened, but in reality instead of turning yourself in you were found by us and taken here. Am I correct?”

“Yep, pretty much.”

“Ok, I have a proposition.”

“Death, life sentence, torture, or being forced to live on and repent for what I did?”

“Something akin to the last one.”

“What is your offer?”

“Would you like a job?”

“The fuck? I didn’t know the shadow operatives were a hit squad!”

“No, we don’t kill, but Persona users are rare and believe me, if you were too dangerous to be a shadow operative, I would’ve ended this interrogation and left you to be eaten by the Japanese legal system. No, there’s a single reason why I’m offering this,”

“Why? I’ve heard of Adachi, and considering the shit he did looks like fucking nothing compared to me, I don’t see why you are offering me, a person who is worse than Adachi, a chance?”

“First, because, Adachi was given his powers and started out vile, his first kill was when he attempted to rape a woman for gods sake. He was given powers and he used them poorly, no input from Izanami, long story. But you, from what you said, the god rigged the game against you, bassically manipulating you into becoming a twisted murderer. Second, you were like me and my team at one point.”

“How? You didn’t end up having a body count of insane proportions.”

“Let me tell you a story, I had a cousin once, she was like a little sister to me. One day, in the Inaba kidnappings, Taro Namatame kidnapped her and put her in the TV with himself, the TV world being like mementos. In the end we rescued her, but she was hospitalized in the same hospital as Namantane. One day, her health became bad, and she died. Our team was filled with grief, and then we came upon Namatame. Our grief overcame us, one of us suggested we kill him to prevent more death. Our team began to crack, the tightly knitted web showing tears. Fortunately I knocked some sense into them and we solved the case for real. But just as easily, we could’ve ended up murderers, who were blinded with rage and grief. Fortunately Nanako survived, but we are not so different, you and I. Luckily I had a team, emotional support, and was older, you had no one, was younger, was easily manipulated, and god literally rigged the game. So I am giving you a chance for repentance. A job as a Shadow Operative. Specifically you will be under the care of me and my crew, the Investigation Team.”

“What if I accept?”

“Well, our job entails killing supernatural beings that wish to control the world or plunge it into chaos, so that's a thing. We will take some precautions for you, a probation if you will. You understand right?”

“Yes, completely, if I hired a mass murderer I would probably be careful.”

“Alright, so, do you accept a job?”

“Fine, I choose my own path, and this is the one I choose.”

“Good to have you on board. Now anything you need to know?”

“Is there an ankle collar you need to place on me?”

“Unfortunately, yes, oh yea, I should say the names of the people who are in the Investigation Team full time, and or the people you will be working with.”  
“Ah, yes.”

“So there is Me, Yu Narukami, Yosuke Hanamura, Chie Satonaka, Yukiko Amagi, Kanji Tatsumi, Teddie, Labrys, Marie, and Naoto Shirogane.”   
At the mention of Naoto Akechi’s eyes grew wide from shock.

“Are you a fan of hers?”

“Why yes, when I believed in a purer form of justice I admired her for her work and being able to stand on her own with societal stigmas against women and children working. She is the person I was inspired to make this name after when I was younger and created the Detective Prince persona. Robin Hood also admires her, and he is me.”

“Heh, yea. Well Naoto was rather hesitant on taking you in or even offering you a job, you being a serial killer that makes Adachi look like rice.”

“That makes sense, I would be wary if I were her. So, when do I start?”

“Oh, as a Shadow Operative? When our next mission begins, as a Investigation Team member, right now.”

“Wait what?”

“Oh yea, we run our own Detective Agency here in Inaba, you will be my assistant on cases.”

“So I’m doing real detective work now?”

“What, were all your cases faked?”

“No, quite a couple ones were actual ones I solved for real, and those are the ones I am proud of.”

“Alright, but be wary, most of my cases are boring infidelity.”

“Alright.”  
And with the end of that discussion Yu got up, uncuffed Akechi, and got up with him. Akechi stood up and followed Yu out of the door, which led to an office where a brown haired young man, a brown haired young woman, a black haired man, a black haired young woman, and Naoto Shirogane stood watching the camera and looked at them.

“Partner, there are too many damned reasons why I think this is a bad idea, but if you think this can work, so be it.” said the brown haired man.

“Agreed, also does nobody see the similarities?” said the brown haired girl.

“What similarities?” said the black haired woman.

“That Dojima’s partner was Tohru Adachi, serial killer. And now Senpai’s partner is Goro Akechi, another serial killer.” said Naoto.

“Ohhhh, well this time we know he did it. And partner, I can understand your logic behind this, but it's still not the best idea.” said the brown haired man.

“I agree, but it's either to help prevent the world from being taken over by malevolent entities or rot in jail, I know that's cowardly and avoiding consequences, but I doubt jail would actually help anyone,” said Akechi.

“Damn, now we got one more person with an IQ higher than Yosuke and Chie.” said the Black haired man.

“Speak for yourself Kanji!” said the brown haired man.

“Shouldn’t you guys introduce yourself?” said Yu.

“Right Partner, Yosuke Hanamura, and be on your best behavior, we won’t hesitate to let Chie Galactic punt you right in the moons.” 

“Chie Satonaka, and yea what Yosuke said.”

“Yukiko Amagi, hopefully you don’t turn out like Adachi.”

“Kanji Tatsumi, hope you don’t end up acting like an egotistical smartass like someone I know acted like at first.”

“Naoto Shirogane, though you already know me, and Kanji your temper was like a box of claymores thrown everywhere at first, you have no right to tell me off for initial behavior.” 

“Alright alright.”

Akechi absorbed the familiar atmosphere that was akin to how the Thieves worked, except more familial. It was almost like they were a family, the thieves all worked with each other and were friends, except someone like Futaba wouldn’t interact with someone like Haru or Makoto outside of thievery, here it seemed like all of them knew each other on a deep personal level and would sacrifice themselves to save them. This was a feeling that Akechi desired but knew he didn’t deserve, 

‘No justice can be served if there are no bonds to serve it for’ said hereward, a mix between Loki and Robin Hood that was there, coexisting with them. 

‘Well said friend,’ said Robin Hood. 

‘Yea, even I have to agree we need friends worth fighting for, Akira helped in that dream bullshit,’ admitted Loki.   
At the lightheartedness of the mood, and the genuine sincerity between them made Akechi remember his mother, and how even though she wasn’t the best mom, she still loved him. Akechi began tearing up at the sight of a new potential family, and they noticed.

“Huh? Something happened ‘kechi?” Asked Yosuke.

Akechi muttered some words, “it's just that this feels like a potential family, even though I screwed up almost everything, it feels like I will have something to fight for at last, maybe its a pipe dream and I will never find family. Maybe I don’t deserve it, but you guys act like family, family I never had.”  
Everyone was silent, and Yu said something, “he’s not lying, I can tell.”

“Awwww, maybe he’s not so bad after al-”

Then the door to the office broke open, and a large mascot costume and a young woman who looked their age was with the mascot. The mascot costume zipped open and out jumped a young man around the team’s age, blonde hair, good features, androgynous looks in general. The person jumped out of the costume with a bag and yelled.

“WHO WANTS TO MAKE PANCAKES? They’re beary good! Oh hi newbie! I got pancake mix cause I heard your story, maybe you want to be reminded of a new family instead of failure when you eat pancakes!”

Akechi stared at the bear and said, “Fine I assume he’s Teddie?”

“Yep.” said Yu.

“Hiya new guy! Seems like you know how the power of bonds are now! Are you ready to make friends? I’m Labrys!” 

“To be honest, it seems like you guys are at least tolerable, so I guess I’ll indulge in a little fantasy of mine.”

“Yayy, now let's make some filled pancakes and stuff our mouths with the creamy stuff!” 

The team collectively agreed and got the pancake mix and took it to their kitchen. Akechi followed them and observed, thinking about some observations he is making on them. 

Yu Narukami looked like a wild card, extremely good poker face to the point where even he couldn’t read Yu. He looked like he valued the truth above all else, along with justice. 

Yosuke Hanamura has some emotional intelligence and seems to have good insight and deduction abilities. 

Chie Satonaka, she seemed to have a sense of justice that rivaled that of Ryuji or Akira, she seems to be very strong, extremely eager to protect her friends or innocents, and is at odds with Yosuke at times. 

Yukiko Amagi, intelligent, blunt, lively, fearless.

Kanji Tatsumi seemed to be an extremely good craftsman, he noticed several of the things around were handmade things and he does work in Tatsumi Textiles, so that can be assumed. Kanji seems tough, smart emotionally if not book smart, protective of friends, a little impulsive, and genuinely reminded Akechi of Ryuji and Yuseke, impulsive, brash, passionate. 

Teddie feels like Ann, but the energy Teddie gives off in his speech is like that of a child, his passion so pure that not even Akechi can really hate it. Teddie seems to be breaking the laws of physics with his costume, he will get back to that. Teddie reminds him of Morgana at points, not understanding many human norms, maybe this is someone like Morgana? Except Morgana was a snarky, obnoxious at times cat. Teddie feels like a little kid who is living life to the fullest.

Naoto Shirogane, a person he has not seen in a long time, seems serious and standoffish at times, but genuinely seems to enjoy her time with her friends. 

Labrys is an Anti Shadow weapon and seems to be like Teddie.

Akechi packs up his thoughts and decides to dig into the newly served pancakes that had smiley faces on them. Akechi decided to let this be a new chapter in his life, and dug into the pancakes.


	2. Everyday Akechi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is basically everyday Akechi now

The normal day of Akechi started with waking up, stretching, and remembering the ankle collar he had attached existed. He gets dressed in his semi-formal clothes that were given to him for his new job and goes into the office’s (and or Narukami’s home’s) kitchen. 

He always sees Narukami in casual clothes, making breakfast while whistling some pop song about the truth. Breakfast is always nice, Narukami can understand when Akechi needs silence or when he needs someone to talk to about anything. Narukami acts patient and has no sense of shame, ever. He sees him entertain some of Teddie’s more childish notions. He saw at one point that Narukami agreed to let Teddie piggy back ride him at Junes all the way to the office for sex as a bet. Narukami was happy to oblige on his part and Teddie was even more enthusiastic. Oh yea the entire team was in a polyamory with each other, honestly that was the most mundane thing compared to the fact they were a spec ops team for a multi million cooperation with magical psychic mythological figures in their head. But back to breakfast, this day they were speaking about the newest case.

“So, what do you know about Taro Namatame?” asked Akechi.

“Well at first we all thought he was absolutely nuts, but after hearing his side of the story he actually made a lot of sense. And now the times I see him he is actually an upstanding guy. You know of my truth seeking ability, and he isn’t lying during his speeches.”

“Why are we being hired by a rival party of his to investigate sketchy behavior while he’s on vacation? If they wanted dirt they could just frame him for some shit, or dig up his past.”

“I don’t know, they probably believe his past would be bad to mention, or that it's not enough. As for framing I think they need something that won’t be able to blow up in their faces.”

“Well, this job never changes, instead of acting as Shido’s personal metaphysical investigator on his rivals, I’m a real one for hire for the rivals of anyone.” 

“Yep, hey politics are weird, plus Namatame is a stand up guy, I just need you to shadow him until noon, you should use a disguise for the public.”

“Which one?”

“Your pick, but honestly I think something inconspicuous would be good, so try and cover your hair and features with a hoodie, hide in the shadows as well.” 

“Got it, what will you be doing?”

“Well, I got a date to keep.”

“Which one are you fucking this time?”

“Yeesh, its not good for a father figure to talk about their sex life.”

“Narukami-san, even if the bar for father figures in my life is lower than the sewers of Satan’s bathroom, you are probably not the best father figure.”

“I could do without the honorifics, but half my team calls me senpai so I honestly can’t complain.”

“Which one are you going on a date with?”

“Yeesh, I was kidding, I got some stuff to discuss with Mit-chan.”

“Mit-chan?”

“Oh, thats Mitsuru, it's just a name Teddie gave her and it stuck.”

“Oh yea, what the living hell is Teddie?” 

“Weird to explain, but basically Teddie is a shadow who grew to be human enough to grow a body.”

“Grow, a body?”

“Yes, again it's weird, Mitsuru borrowed him for a week or two to try and examine him, but the scientists had no clue what his body was made of or how he grew one.”

“Is he the one who made those glasses?”

“Why yes, he’s actually quite a good craftsman, almost as good as Kanji.”

“Neat, so, should I begin shadowing Namatame?”

“Yea, I’m done with breakfast so when you’re finished go ahead, wear the bug though.”

“Alright.” 

When Akechi finished his breakfast, he got one of his disguises, a black hoodie, and put it on. When he first began Narukami found that Akechi was not only a genius with deduction and reasoning but was a great actor and pretty damned good at costumes. 

On multiple occasions Teddie (damn his lack of boundaries) complimented him when he was crossdressing (For detective work). Crossdressing wasn’t anything new though, it felt as normal as putting on a mask, just one where he conveys a different gender rather than a princely personality. 

On a ‘date’ (He wishes) with Akira to crossroads during the dream reality, when he heard about the nature of the bar, he decided to wear some clothes he had when he tried crossdressing one time. 

As Akechi got out to be greeted by the cold air of Inaba, he checked the note he had with Namatame’s schedule. Namatame would usually take a long walk, get some coffee, walk back to his home, do work for an hour or two, and that would be noon. While Akechi stalked Namatame, he didn’t notice odd behavior, and when noon came, he decided on a break. 

Akechi checked what he could do, and decided to have lunch at Aiya’s. The ramen there is remarkable. As he checked his wallet, he noticed, there was no money. In fact he was never paid for the past 3 days he had been a Shadow Operative and Detective. He decided to whip out his phone.

>Official Investigation Team   
**Not Adachi** : A little assistance on something?  
 **FBI open up** : Yes Akechi-kun?  
 **Not Adachi** : I just remembered that i never got any money, I need lunch  
 **Marie’s Ex** : Sorry at a meeting, couldn’t make anything. Also your employment is the thing I’m discussing with Mit-chan.  
 **Marie’s Ex** : I just got slapped for calling her that, rude. I should file a paper to HR  
 **Marie’s Ex** : Nvm I got threatened with execution  
 **Yu’s Ex** : That’s half deserved  
 **Not Adachi** : None of that changes the fact that I am broke and need food  
 **Ressentiment** : hey if ya want I can get you some food at Junes, Chie is already coming to get some steak cause she’s done with her morning routine.  
 **Not Adachi** : Thanks, will come

Akechi closed his phone, and wondered why were all of these names so inane? He remembered how he never was officially added into the Phantom Thieves group chat, The first time was fair as he was betraying them. During the dream world he only kept contact with the group through Akira, Futaba (she hacked his phone), Ann, or Sumire. 

Funnily enough those were the only people he gave a modicum of respect to in the thieves. There was no use thinking about that now, they moved on from him, and he should move on from them. He finished thinking about that when he came into an empty Junes food court, except with Yosuke, Chie, and Teddie all talking.

“Hey Akechi-kun! Over here!” said Chie.

“Even if you tried whispering I could have heard you.” said Akechi.

“Yeesh, alright, so what do you want?” said Yosuke.

“Hmm, I’ll get some croquettes and a drink.” said Akechi and Yosuke went off to order the food.

“Akechi-baby! Help me! They are being mean to me!” said Teddie.

“We were just debating on the best featherman ship,” said Yosuke.

“Akechi-baby, he said Red and Blue are the best ship, Black and Blue are the best!”

“Please, he's not going to get into-”

“I have to agree with teddie, although Red and Blue are both extremely intelligent and are extremely capable as leaders and as individuals, we are ignoring chemistry. Red has shown blue nothing but a solid bond of friendship, even in the egregious wedding ceremony, the two were honestly a pair that didn’t need anything more than a solid, unbreakable, friendship. Meanwhile black and blue are a solid pair. Black supports blue through thick and thin and they have seen each other in their darkest times. The only reason why Blue doesn’t get in a relationship with Black is because the authors are giant teases and Blue is so emotionally constipated that they can’t see Black’s feelings.”

“See Yosuke! Akehi-baby is on my side!”

“Fine, I’ll lay off, but seriously I didn’t know you were a big fan, ask up Naoto if you want to watch some cause she got a collection of really old episodes, oh and we know Pink Argus.”

“You know Pink Argus. You know, the, Pink, fucking, Argus?!” said Akechi, a little stunned while he was eating his food.

“Yea, she has a,” Yosuke began to whisper in his ears, “Persona, and she’s a shadow operative, one of the originals.” 

“Wow, that's unexpected, do you think I’ll get to meet her? Oh right, the whole murder thing, yea ok that could ruin impressions, but still it’ll be nice to meet someone who plays to role of someone who kept my childhood more bearable.”

“Yea, I don’t think she’ll mind, she's faced much worse people, seriously I’ve heard tales of a person who looked like a revolver Jesus.”

“Well that doesn’t change the fact that she’s a role model for me, not just in character, but as a actor as well, her acting is extremely good.”

“Almost as good as your detective prince persona?”

“She’s better, but anyways, why is Mitsuru-san having a meeting with Yu about my employment?” 

“Well the fact you did, well what you did, is enough reasons to not want you part of this, but I guess Yu really wants you to redeem yourself through this. Plus after hearing your story, I don’t see a reason to hate you. Distrust? Yes, but Hate? No.” said Yosuke.

“That's a fair reason to mistrust me, considering my colorful past. Well anyways, I should be heading back to the office, thank you for the lunch.” said Akechi.

“Take care Akechi-baby!” said Teddie.

“Later ‘kechi,” said Yosuke.

“Bye Akechi!” said Chie, just about finished with her steak.

Akechi walked into his apartment, tried recalling if he had anything due, and decided to just spend his free time reading some detective stories he borrowed from the library, laughing at the irony that the detective was the hitman that he was hunting. He decided to take a picture of the reveal and send it to the group chat.

>Official Investigation Team  
 **Not Adachi** : Hey look at this  
 **Not Adachi** has sent PlotTwist.png  
 **FBI open up** : As I would say, ‘read’  
 **Snow Black** : SDKFKSDK   
**Trial of the Dragon** : oh noes, you killed her Akechi!  
 **Not Adachi** : Not my first victim  
 **Snow Black** : Bitch I’m not dead  
 **Not Adachi** : Oh no, I need to finish the job (pulls out absurdly large gun)  
 **FBI open up** : this is manga, sword beat gun (grabs giant sword)  
 **Not Adachi** : This is a detective manga, guns are way too effective  
 **FBI open up** : I have a sword gun, and through the power of pure awesomeness I win  
 **Not Adachi** : Oh no, i lost to my ultimate arch nemesis, things that look cool but serve no purpose in reality  
 **FBI open up** : So is that why you got defeated by yourself?  
 **Snow Black** : OOOOH Naoto with dem sic burnz  
 **Not Adachi** : Yukiko-san, please, if you ever try and speak ‘in my generation’ again I will try and summon my persona with a revolver.  
 **Trial of the Dragon** : I agree with Akechi  
 **FBI open up** : I share the same sentiment  
 **Snow Black** : are my girlfriends betraying me?   
**Trial of the Dragon** : Yes, yes i am  
 **FBI open up** : yes, the attempt to be ‘hip’ is a cursed message and must be purged from this earth using lethal measures. Akechi just decides to use those lethal measures on himself.  
 **Not Adachi** : I solve most of my problems with guns, I suggested on multiple occasions we can just shoot a therapist and all our problems would have gone. But noo, just battle fucking god instead of being efficient, code of honor and stuff  
 **FBI open up** : While from an efficiency stance, that would make sense, morally it is never good to murder in cold blood. Unless you are protecting someone or yourself or you are in a very specific circumstance, murder is not ok. Even then it's debatable.  
 **Not Adachi** : That is a fair point, but this feels like a philosophical argument I should have not right now.   
**Marie’s Ex** : Yolo meetings over, had a meeting with the rest of the Shadow ops, talked with Mit-chan, Ai-chan, and the others  
 **Not Adachi** : What would the other Shadow Operatives opinions on me joining be?  
 **Marie’s Ex** : it took a lot of convincing, but then I brought up the point that hiring you might attract the thieves and we could use more persona users  
 **Not Adachi** : ah, relegated to bait, wonderful  
 **Marie’s Ex** : It's not like that AkechI! Even if we got them they probably wouldn’t transfer to our department, you got in because you already proved yourself as an extremely talented person, any of the others would probably be standby members that are on the backburner.  
 **Not Adachi** : That is rather comforting, but may I inquire about their opinions?  
 **Marie’s Ex** : well they are wary, you know, murder, but they let you be hired if you prove yourself trustworthy as soon as the next mission comes.  
 **Not Adachi** : And until then?  
 **Marie’s Ex** : You’ll be splitting my paycheck, it’s fine this job combined with being a Shadow Op pays well, I’ll give you enough money to last a while  
 **Bearsona** changed **Yu Narukami’s** name to **Sugar Daddy**  
 **Sugar Daddy** : …  
 **Not Adachi** : …  
 **FBI open up** : …  
 **Trial of the Dragon** : ....  
 **Snow Black** : …  
 **Sugar Daddy** : Akechi  
 **Not Adachi** : yes?  
 **Sugar Daddy** : I will be coming home with Teddie, I know my room is soundproof but please ignore his screams, thumps, or moans  
 **Not Adachi** : Understood  
 **Not Adachi** : what will be for dinner btw?  
 **Sugar Daddy** : Hmmm, maybe some fried rice? Curry? I’ll look at what we have

Akechi closes his phone and ignores the antics of Teddie and Narukami, and begins to review some old cases, mostly infidelity as Narukami said. Most of the cases were just shadowing the person and connecting dots, nothing too crazy. One time there was a notorious panty thief that turned out to be a cat, oddly enough. Akechi opens the next folder, it was just pictures of cats, with a date, location, and breed on the back of the picture. Akechi internally questions if this is the same person who has killed gods, then remembers Akira’s adventures. By the time Akechi is finished reading through case files Narukami is finished with Teddie, he makes dinner and the two eat, Akechi makes the first move.

“What are your missions normally?”

“Well normally Mitsuru gives us missions to investigate something internally, or something that relates to shadows and stuff.”

“I guess that's not the thing she needs me to prove my loyalty with?” 

“Nope, every once in a while some big thing happens where it’s usually a god fucking stuff over, and we have to kill it.”

“Which ones did you kill?”

“Oh? Well the first ones were Kunino-Sagiri, Ameno-Sagiri, Kusumi no okami, though we didn’t kill her cause Marie is Kusumi no okami, Izanami, Kagutsuchi, and I forgot the last one but it was really weird.”

“How so?”

“We killed it with dancing.”

“Dancing?”

“Because we couldn’t attack the shadows and the god wanted easy bonds, so we taught the power of friendship to the god and shadows with dancing.”

“That is, substantially odd even compared to going to an alternate dimension to defeat demons by summoning demons Jojo style.”

“Yep”

Dinner soon was over, and Akechi finished his day with some stretches, reading, brushing his teeth, and going to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thx for reading, comment, criticize, or kudo if u want


	3. Meeting Rise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yep, another one! Next one will feature Akechi going into the TV world and seeing its beautiful form

Akechi goes through some information he had when Narukami mentions Rise Kujikawa was coming to Inaba for a short commercial. In his career as the simpering detective prince he only had to talk with the idol a couple times on talk shows. 

He has heard Ryuji sometimes talk about her newest projects, it seems most of her personally made music has a common theme, truth. That makes sense as Kujikawa is part of the group dubbed Seekers of Truth which killed Izanami. Akechi packs up his thoughts and decides to read some things on the news in the kitchen.

“So when is Kujikawa-san arriving?”

“Hmm, I think she’s on her way right now, she’ll stop by the office before noon.”

“Neat, so what are you going to do?”

“Well the team’s going to be going to Junes to get some food for lunch with Rise.”

“Alright, have fun.”

“Hey Akechi your part of the team as well, you’re coming, plus she wants to meet you.”

“Alright Narukami.”

Akechi decided to work on some case files until noon, when Narukami gets Akechi and they walk to the train station in relative silence. When they got there, they waited outside the station until a copper pigtailed woman came out and saw Narukami.

“Senpai! I’m back!”

“Hello Rise, welcome back to Inaba, as you know we have a new member,” said Narukami, pointing to Akechi.

“Nice to meet you Kujikawa-san,” said Akechi, not bothering with a pleasant tone.

“Call me Rise! Everyone does it, calling me Kujikawa-san makes me feel old.”

“Alright Rise-san,” said Akechi.

“Hmph! Good enough.” 

“Alright Rise, we’re going to meet the team at Junes, lets go.” said Narukami.

“Senpai! When will you ever buy a car? I know you have money,” said Rise.

“I won’t.” 

“Hmph! Fine, let's meet the others! I wonder if Chie is eating steak already.”

“I wonder, how much of her diet is composed of meat?” asked Akechi.

“It's a running joke that she cannot eat vegetables,” said Narukami.

“Like it was a running joke that Naoto would never notice Moronji’s feelings.” said Rise.

The conversation died down from there, and as they arrived at the Junes food court they saw the team sitting there among the crowd, Naoto and Kanji talking, Chie and Yosuke Arguing with Yukiko laughing, Teddie talking with Labrys, and Marie reading a paper. 

“Yello Yu! Yo Rise!” said Marie.

“Ah finally, Yu’s here, Yosuke let me get steak!”

“Chie no, eat something else other than steak.”

Yukiko was just laughing. 

“Chie-senpai, please eat a balanced meal, it is necessary for growing strong.” interjected Naoto.

“Finneeeee, I still want steak later.” said Chie.

“Alright dragon.” said Yosuke. 

Akechi decided to sit down and eat some food with Yu and Rise. He gets a boxed lunch from the ones Hanamura got, and decides to dig in.

“So Akechi-kun! How have you been doing?” said Rise.

“You know the normal, killed too many people, faked death, faked revival, and faked death again.” said Akechi.

“That's no good! Well at least you have a new start here in the Investigation Team! Welcome to the team, how are you liking it so far!”

“Pretty good, learning how to use my abilities to craft makeshift grenades and lockpicks for knitting with Tatsumi-san.”

“Yea, Moronji’s pretty good at what he does.”

“So, can I ask a question, because I think you are the only one I think I could ask.”

“Yea Sketchi ‘kechi?”

“First, never call me that, but did you ever notice I was faking my prince personality on those talk shows?”

“Yep! Kouzeon told me on multiple times you were seething with hatred on all of those shows we were on!” 

“Well that's mind reading, but fair enough. Also what's with the group chat nicknames? I get mine and Naoto’s but what about the others?” 

“Mostly inside jokes, there was an incident a couple of years ago where there was a giant tournament in the midnight channel and we got weird nicknames. Yosuke and Moronji’s names are from that. Yukiko’s was just a nickname that she got randomly. Mine was from my dungeon or palace if you will. Chie’s is from a kung fu movie she watches. Teddie just yells Bearsona when summoning his thing. Marie is Izanami and Yu is Izanagi, so figure that out. Labrys originally thought she was the student council president of yasogami during the death tournament, so on and so on.”

“That makes sense, I think.”

“So how did you craft your mask? My shadow was about trying to find a real me, which doesn’t exist, but you obviously were faking the prince personality.”

“Extensive trial and error, its a torture I would never wish even upon my worst enemies.”

“Huh, neat. I just had to act cheery all the time, it works!” 

“Watching you control a crowd like a bull tamer was impressive.” 

“Thanks!”

“Oh, and one of the thieves was a fan of yours I think, funny how these things work out.”

“Doesn’t surprise me! I am a large idol who has many popular hits, and they are teens so it was likely anyways.”

“Cool, I don’t know why a detective like me could become like an idol though, most detective work is logistical thinking and connecting dots with testimonies and evidence, I primarily think the only thing that quote en quote charmed the foolish masses is my pretty face and plastic personality.” 

“Well in the idol business that's all it takes, plus the industry is 90% acting so it's pretty normal!” 

“Oh yea, I have heard several jokes about me being Yu’s newest adopted kid, why the hell am I hearing this?”

“Ohhh, Ohhh, HAHAHAHAHAHA, Oh god, do you know Nanako? We all make jokes about him being like a second dad with his parental instincts, he also babysat a kid at a daycare, tutored another kid, and now we have you, basically he just has the tendency to adopt kids.”

“Didn’t you say you wanted a big family?” said Yu.

“Huh!? Senpai? I thought I was the mind reader!” said Rise.

“Oh, yea nevermind ignore what I said.” said Yu.   
Akechi packed his suspicions away and finished his lunch. The rest of the day was just hanging out with Kujikawa and the rest of the team. 

They arrived at the Samegawa flood plain, and they decided to do some fishing at Narukami’s insistence. Akechi got irritated and decided to grab some string, some sticks, a wooden fishing rod, and some tape. A couple minutes later Akechi had a makeshift bow and arrows. He took aim at fish.

“Wait Akechi what are you doing?” said Yosuke.

“Outwitting the fish to kill them,” said Akechi, letting loose an arrow and impaling a fish.

“Yosuke, we’re lucky he doesn’t have a gun.” said Chie 

“Or firecrackers,” said Kanji.

“I am merely using my superior intellect to outmatch the fish, its natural selection,” said Akechi, letting loose another arrow and impaling another fish.

“You know, you’re more accurate with that bow than Yukari is with hers,” said Yu.

“Partner please get him to stop shooting the fish,” said Yosuke.

“Nah, if I had a harpoon I would be doing the same thing, in fact,” said Yu as he was looking for his Katana hidden into a cane that he carries with him all the time. Yu went upstream and decided to use his Katana he told Akechi he got from the reaper, to slash fish.

Teddie was just using a detached claw of his to gut the fish out on a folding table, surprisingly Teddie is extremely dexterous, being able to cut off the skin, bones, and other inedible bits of the fish with ease. 

“I think Akechi-baby has a beary good idea with that bow! It’s much faster and doesn’t need any bait!” 

“Thank you Teddie, if I had a proper bow I would be able to catch even more fish.” 

“Teddie, could I borrow some of your claws?” asked Yukiko.

“Alright Yuki-chan!”  
Yukiko grabbed a claw, and threw it in the water, a fish came out impaled by that claw. The team looks at her with shock.

“What? I threw my fan at terminal velocity accurately, I can do it with knives.” 

“Remind me to never get on your bad side,” said Akechi.

The rest of the fishing trip went in the same vein, Akechi shooting arrows at the fish with absurd accuracy, Yukiko impaling some with Teddie’s claw, Yu slashing fish with his Katana, and the others deciding to just let this happen and go fish upstream.  
When it was evening, the team got all the fish they caught, put it in a box and headed to Dojima’s house to let Yu and Kanji cook the food. 

“Hi big bro! Brought your friends?” asked a 12 year old girl, most likely Nanako Dojima, Yu’s cousin.

“Yep! I brought a new one!” said Yu, getting the fish ready with Teddie and Kanji.

“Who is it?’

“Hello Nanako-chan, I am friends with your cousin, my name is Goro Akechi.” said Akechi, a little tired from shooting dozens of arrows at fish.

“Oh! The 2nd detective prince? Are you friends with Naoto?’ asked Nanako.

“In a sense, yes,” said Akechi.

“You’re so cool! But aren’t you missing? I heard some stuff about it and it was like you totally disappeared.” said Nanako.

“Yes, I am in hiding, so could you please be quiet about me being here?”

“Don’t worry! I can keep a secret!” said Nanako as she began to work on some stuff she was doing.

It was a minute or two before Naoto asked something to Akechi. 

“Akechi-kun, I don’t know if you were faking everything as my successor, but what is your opinion on how the Phantom Thieves stole hearts?” asked Naoto.

“My opinion was and is the same, while the big targets the thieves stole hearts from were all irredeemable trash, the methods they used were highly questionable or borderline war crimes.” replied Akechi.

“Because it's akin to brainwashing?” said Naoto.

“Yes, yes it is. The TV world can only be used for murder or introspection, along with fast travel across long distances. The Metaverse and Mementos is essentially a means to mess with a person’s mind. If you abide by the saying ‘the end justifies the mean,’ then the thieves are just. But in my opinion my method was cleaner and more moral for most of my targets. Of course their method helped society more, if it’s asking the value of lives, then sure they were just, as they saved more lives than ruined. Of course their justice only holds up if they target extremely bad individuals or people in need of it. Basically if a person is not harming others, themselves, or asking for it, stealing hearts is not just.”

“Interesting stance Akechi-kun, but your methods would not help anybody. Killing people and changing their whole mindset are different things, the morality of both are questionable. Killing people instills panic, their crimes never come to light, and they never learn what they did is wrong. Changing hearts while immoral, in the times they did it it actually helped reform society.”

“Fair point, I have another question, are Personas supposed to affect us in the real world?”

“What do you mean Akechi-kun?” 

“Well ever since I got Robin Hood and Hereward I have become an excellent marksman with my gun and that bow, as I displayed.”

“Hmm, that could be a cognitive effect from having historical figures renowned for their aim in your head. Having Yamato Sumeragi has given me the ability to use sabers quite well, as well as my preexisting marksmanship.”

“Hmm, interesting. Why is Narukami’s ability to force or tell the truth then?”

“As you know, he is a wildcard, his abilities matter on the strength of his Persona. As Izanagi-no-okami is his ultimate Persona, it means that is his ultimate ability, to force or tell the truth from people’s statements.”

“Interesting, I assume having Izanagi-no-okami would lead him to be proficient with Katanas?”

“Yes, it actually does.”   
"Well, these theories are interesting, I assume Mitsuru has already taken notes of these changes of cognition?”

“Yes actually, I don’t know how the personas of the other shadow operatives change their abilities, but it is remarkable to see how they affect the human cognition so much as to give them proficiency with a certain weapon.”

“Indeed,” said Akechi. 

As the two finished their conversation, Yu came back with fish croquette and rice, the group ate peacefully with Nanako turning on the TV to show the news, it was mostly things happening in Tokyo, as everything happening there was a comical mess after the thieves finally slapped everyone into their senses. Then something clicked in Akechi.

‘Oh shit, Akira’s in jail,’ said Goro internally.

‘Well, we can’t have our rival rot in jail,’ said Loki.

‘Why don’t we check out the police station and retrieve some evidence?’ said Hereward.

‘Yes, sometimes to save the innocent we must commit crimes,’ said Robin Hood.

“I’m going to take a walk Yu-san,” asked Akechi.

“Hm? Yea ok Goro,” said Yu.

As Akechi walked to the police station, he heard a voice of a young woman.

“Please tell me if you know about a young man named Akira Kurusu?” asked the woman to Akechi's shock, “I need testimonies from people to use in the special article in regards to him!” 

The other woman looked doubtful, but the woman continued, “Did he truly look like someone who would commit assault?” 

The conversation continued in the same way, and Akechi internally laughed to himself. 

‘Hah! He never needed me! He has all the friends in the world to help him, the golden boy himself already has friends to help him.’

‘At least we have a family as well now,’ said Robin Hood.

‘Yea! They’re nice, nicer than Shido was, and definitely nicer than the thieves which, well it's fair they hate us,’ said Loki.

‘The archer is useless if it cannot have strength to pull the arrow back,’ said Hereward.

‘Thanks for the encouragement, I should let Mr. Golden boy do his thing, he probably has dozens of people salivating over him already, it was fun doing stuff with him and Sumire though.’

Akechi smiles constantly as he walks back to the Dojima residence, wondering if Akira will choose Sumire or any of the other thieves.


	4. Entering the TV, and in the Depths of the Alligator

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yep, we are moving forward! I'm still going to make Shadow Op IT Akechi fluff so don't worry!

Akechi’s first outing in the TV world a couple days after Rise arrived, and it was just after the crew barring Marie had lunch. 

“So you just hop in the TV?”

“Yep!” said Rise.

“That seems inconvenient,” said Akechu.

“It kinda was, we had to make sure nobody was around and keep employees away,” said Chie.

“Yep,” said Yosuke.

And so they entered the TV. Akechi felt like he was falling, he saw nothing but white, he was falling. A few seconds later he felt a gust of air, he smelled the fresh wild air and soon found himself on a green hill with a single tree, overseeing a beach of a calm lake. The Investigation team was looking at the lake and smiling at the beautiful sight.

Akechi got up, stretched, and went up to them. 

“So this is the world in human hearts? It's oddly beautiful,” said Akechi.

“I know right? Before it was a foggy mess that looked like a horror movie,” said Yosuke.

“The masses’ heart, mementos, was a veiny bloody mess that looked like a horror movie occurred in the subways.” said Akechi.

“Well in this town, we cleared the fog and this is the truth we found, it’s clear, sunny, beautiful,” said Yu.

“That is heartwarming, unfortunately Tokyo doesn’t have a place like this, Mementos was horrible and all the palaces were horrifying to look inside,” said Akechi.

“Well, this place is beary nice! I’m the guardian of this place now!” said Teddie.

“He leaves just to get Topsicles,” says Yosuke.

“Hey! My job requires Topsicles!” said Teddie. 

“He also leaves to take Labrys on dates,” says Kanji.

“Well that's a different matter! I’m not a robot! I need downtime!” said Teddie.

“Don’t worry Teddie, I like those dates! I’m sure this place does fine, most of our missions haven’t been here so it should be safe!” said Labrys.

“See! Labby-chan agrees with me!” said Teddie.

“Teddie I would refrain from chaining yourself with responsibilities if you’re not going to stand by them,” said Akechi.

“Don’t worry, nobody took it seriously anyways,” said Yu.

“Hey! You guys ruined a beary emotional moment that time!” said Teddie.

“I think you saying you would leave ruined that mood anyways,” said Yukiko.

“Anyways, what am I here for?” asked Akechi.

“Oh? I assumed we were just introducing you to the true form of the TV world, unless one of us has any ideas?” replied Naoto.

“Oh yea, who wants to duel?” asked Yu.

“Lovely, I lost to a wildcard before, I’d like to see the full power of one now,” said Akechi.

“Before we do that, shouldn’t we get weapons for you Goro?” said Chie.

“Ah, no need to worry, Yu told me about what he wanted to do, so we stopped by Daidara’s,” said Akechi.

“It was fun,” said Yu.

Flashback to earlier that day

“So why did this man allow high schoolers to get a feudal Japanese army’s worth of weapons?” asked Akechi.

“Well unless we got arrested I guess he assumed no harm no fowl,” said Yu.

“Well, I’m assuming since all the weapons you were armed with were real, I can’t suffice on my props?” said Goro.

“Nope, but if you look you could probably find something good in there,” said Yu.

“Maybe a bow, or I should just stick to a sabers,” said Goro.

“Anything works, stick to something you’re good at,” said Yu.

They entered Daidara’s to be met with the smell of fire and metal, Akechi looked around the place, seeing weapons and armor on racks like they were groceries.

“Oh, Yu-kun, come to check out my wares again? It’s been a while!” said Daidara.

“Hi Daidara-san, I’ve come to get some weapons for my friend here,” replied Yu.

“Do you have sabers? Perhaps serrated?” asked Goro.

“Oh my boy! I got that and so much more, but ask me if you can’t find what you want!” he replied.

Goro ended up getting a serrated saber for a weapon, discarding the need of a ranged weapon for later.

Flashforward back to present 

“Well then, It’ll be nice to see if you can match our leader,” said Kanji.

“Good, let’s get ready,” said Goro, a little excited at the taste of battle once again. As his mood rised a blue fire burned on his body, putting a mask that resembled on the top part of his Black Mask outfit, his prince outfit but the colors were darker, and his cape singed to become short.

“Whoa, neat, I wish I could make that in real life,” said Kanji.

“It seems I can selectively turn my costume on and off, let me try something,” and Akechi thought about his childhood and his happier moments, and his costume turned to Robin Hood’s, he then thought about his hatred and self loathing, and his costume turned back to the black mask. He turned his thinking back to normal and it returned to his Dark Prince outfit.

“On further inspection, depending on my thoughts I can change my outfit,” said Goro.

“Alright, lets fight!” said Yu, readying his Katana. 

“You’re on!” yelled Akechi.

Akechi grabbed his saber and began to rapidly slash at Yu, who blocked it with his Katana each time. Akechi used his other hand to pull off his mask and yelled for Hereward to use Rebellion blade. Suddenly blades surrounded Yu, who noticed immediately and summoned Izanagi to use Maziodyne on the blades, which slowed them down enough to fall. Yu backed up to avoid Goro’s onslaught and use Cross slash on Goro. Goro endured the hit and madly dashed up to Yu with his saber, jumping at him while Yu continued to block Goro’s advances.

Yu suddenly ducked and had Izanagi use Cross Slash on Goro’s back to send him flying past Yu. Goro quickly got on his feet and ordered Hereward to use Laevatein on Yu, sending a large molten sword at him. Yu swiftly used Izanagi’s nagatina to divert the sword, but the attention that took let Goro run up and ready his saber. Yu was slashed in the arm by Goro’s saber and in his eyes for a brief second he was shocked. 

He very quickly used this time to hit Goro’s unguarded spot with his katana and kick him away. Goro tumbled a bit and got up, using riot gun on Yu. Yu endured the attacks and unleashed a few Ziodynes upon Akechi, of which a few hit. Akechi responds by unleashing a few Eigaons to a charging Yu. The Eigaons didn’t do anything to Yu and he quickly slashed at and was blocked by Akechi. Yu saw his opportunity and swept his knees to get him on his back, and put his katana at his body.

“Surrender?” asked Yu.

“Alright, that's enough for today,” said Akechi.

Yu switched to Isis and used Mediarahan on Akechi and Him. Akechi noticed his wounds closing, but leaving scars on where he was hit by Ziodyne, Cross Slash on his back, and where Yu’s Katana hit him.

“Yea sorry about the large cross shaped scar on your back, looks cool though!” said Yu.

“Hah! Well if I ever fight shirtless I’ll keep that in mind,” said Akechi.

“If it helps, we all have at least one mark from impalement except Labrys and Marie,” said Yu.

“Well the scars will be easy to hide, so it’ll be fine,” he replied.

“Whoa, THAT, WAS, AWESOME!!” yelled a starstruck Chie.

“Yea man, that was great! Didn’t know ya could fight like that Goro!” said Kanji.

“I spent two years alone fighting shadows, I may lose to teamwork but in Solo fights I am very skilled,” said Goro.

“Yes Goro-kun, that was a very skilled performance, being able to match Yu-senpai for quite a while,” said Naoto.

“That was awesome! Also can we get cool costumes like that?” said Rise.

“No Rise, I’m not making costumes just for the sake of it,” said Kanji.

“Please Moronji! It’ll look cool!” said Rise.

“I agree! Make me look like an action hero! Or maybe Jackie Chan!” said Chie.

“I agree, those costumes do look quite stylish,” said Yukiko.

“Woah partner, never seen you fight like that in a long time!” said Yosuke.

“I saw that look the day I nicknamed him Sugar Daddy in the group chat!” said Teddie.

“Why did we teach him about sex?” asked Yosuke.

“Technically I taught him, also I was his first soooo,” said Yu.

“I still can’t believe Teddie was your first Senpai! That’s so mean!” said Rise. 

“First, he asked me for skills so he could do it with Labrys, second it got a little intense, third I don’t regret a thing,” said Yu.

“Of course you don’t partner, of course,” said Yosuke.

“I, uhh, I uhm,” Labrys was stammering in embarrassment. 

“Don’t worry Labby-chan! Even if Sensei was my first, you still made me extremely happy! It was just that a couple of years ago when you were visiting and you said you wanted to ‘have sex’ I didn’t know what you meant! So I asked Sensei, he told me what it was, he told me it was for people you have an intense love for, I said I felt that towards you and Sensei, and he humped me into the couch that night!” said Teddie, either blissfully unaware of society's social norms, or just uncaring.

“Now he just tries to get a rise out of me with false attempts, he knows he can just ask but he likes being taken by ‘force’,” said Yu.

“Reminds me of a certain Joker,” said Goro.

“Ooooh, did you actually fuck this Joker guy you were talking about?” asked Rise.

“Yes, during the dream reality I may have shared an intimate moment with him and violet during our initial investigation, after that he would sometimes just try and poke fun at me in a half-hearted attempt at getting a reaction.” said Akechi.

“The way you described him, sounds like an impressive guy, and from the things you said it sounds like he had quite an interest in you ‘Kechi,” said Rise.

“Please don’t talk about my love life, it’s filled with many plastic confessions, also I tried to shoot him three different times,” said Akechi.

“And he still tried to go out with you multiple times,” said Yu. 

**In the depths of ????????**

A nebulous figure walked the halls of the core, seeing prison cells upon prison cells. He was looking for a couple friends.  
“Do you think they broke out” he said.

“No, I would’ve noticed, they probably are still in their cell,” he said.

He walked the rows of cells, occasionally looking where that fucking sippy cup used to be, instead replaced by a heart the same size, beats as loud as gunshots. From the heart he heard voices, innumerable, but his time spent ‘there’ helped him understand it. He could hear the thoughts of people, from panic, fear, anger, to joy and happiness. He could hear the thoughts of all of Tokyo from there. The damn Gator’s heart was unkillable, only controllable. He wandered the halls until he saw another Nebulous figure in the cell.

“He’s here,” said him.

“No shit sherlock.”

He grabbed a Katana, the blade decorated with inscriptions, and he slashed the cell. The bars disintegrated, and opened to reveal him. He woke him up by tapping him a couple times. He began to wake, beginning to take a shape as he did, but still colored like the cosmos as he was. 

“You awake?” he asked.

“Is the Demiurge dead?” he replied.

“Yep, now let's go,” he said.

“What About-” 

“Don’t worry, I managed to chain them with a part of our power, we can leave,”

“Huh, let’s go visit our friends, alright Sol?” 

“Alright Messiah,”

Now to **Tokyo**.

Akira had been summoned to the Velvet Room one last time, and directly after he was given the World Arcana, Igor began to speak again.

“Now Trickster, the world is yours. As a previous guest has been told, ‘The World is Yours, but you have to earn it,’ and you my Trickster, have earned it.”

“Wait, previous guests?” asked Akira.

“Ah yes, I have had three previous ones that you could meet, which one would you like to ask about?” asked Igor.

“You call me trickster a lot, what do you call them?” asked Akira.

“Ah, the oldest one I call Child of Death, the next I call Seeker of Truth, and the last I call Warrior of the Sun,” said Igor.

“What about them do I need to know?” 

“The Child of Death found no meaning in life before, apathy aplenty, then they found reasons to live, and ultimately sacrificed themself to preserve this world. He is a bearer of the Universe Arcana. The Seeker of Truth was given a mystery, and on multiple occasions could’ve been blinded with lies and let this world be consumed by a fog, but persevered and sought the truth no matter what. He is a bearer of the World. The Warrior of the Sun knew nothing but fighting once, but went on a fool's journey and learned what it meant to be human. He ultimately gave up everything to save the world he learned so much about, like the Child of Death. He is another bearer of the Universe. Is that all you need to know Trickster?”

“Also, is the Metaverse just gone?” 

“Ah, a wonderful question, the world of people’s hearts will never be gone. The world the Demiurge created isn’t even gone. It was never his, a world crafted by the moon out of the body of the Abyss, it still exists, but changed. All of these worlds are all one being, the being that is the deepest desires of the human heart, the Abyss of it. Those gods just changed the Abyss of human hearts to show a single part of it. One made it show that humans wanted death, one made it show humans wanted lies, one showed that humans wanted total destruction, and the demiurge showed that humans wanted control. All of these beings made those worlds out of a singular being, an abyss so core to humans that it will never die, only controlled to an extent. This being is a creature with infinite heads, infinite minds, and infinite wills. It’s power is immense but never being able to be used unless a large mass is focused on a singular desire, such as death, lies, destruction, or control. This being, the desires of the human heart, the abyss of which humans are built upon that can swallow them whole, is Cipactli, the crocodile of the infinite Sea of Souls.”

“Isn’t that from the Aztecs?”

“Yes, but the idea of Desires consuming us has always existed, and the name given is that of Cipactli. Cipactli is the one whose heart beats immortal as humans continue willing upon things.”

“Alright,”

“Now my trickster, our time is up, it has been a most wonderful journey. I will see you in the future. Farewell, Trickster of Rebellion.” Igor said, quickly turning into dust as well as Lavenza as she said he goodbyes. Akira was left with some new information and knowledge that mementos is not gone, merely less concentrated. 

In the Depths of **Cipactli**

“Sol, what are our names here?” asked Messiah, as they were emerging from Cipactli, marks from the Demiurge’s control there as remnants of a subway persisted along with the fleshy insides of Cipactli.

“Well Messiah, I guess we have to find out,” said Sol.

The both of them were extremely slowly becoming less of a concept as they were emerging out of Cipactli, becoming more humans, but still retaining their power. 

“Well no matter, we should find out as we emerge from this place,” said Minazuki, a constant in all universes.

“Yea! Maybe I can meet Aigis again!” said Ryoji, another constant.

“I don’t think she’ll be stoked with that, she’ll either shoot you or think the fall is coming again,” said Messiah, features slowly being more defined and less nebulous.

“Well I’d love to see Horitsu again! Or maybe Kajiwara, it’s been a long time.” said Sol, reminiscing at those happy moments. 

“Ah, from what you told me about Nijima-san, he sounds like a good person,” said Messiah.

“Yea! Told me a bunch of cool stuff about his time in the force!” said Sol.

“Do you think we could stay at Nakai and Kamiya’s place?” Asked Messiah.

“I’m sure they would love to see me!” said Sol.

“Do you still think Toyama is at the shrine?” asked Messiah.

“Should be! I think he would be ecstatic to see me!” said Sol.

They reached a little closer to the top, slowly remembering some more of what timeline they are in.

“So Messiah, want to get a drink with me at Muhen’s?” asked S@$

“Sure Sol, it seems we are beginning to look our age, so twenty fourish for me and 21 for you, how are you feelings?” asked M15@10.

“Less of a concept and more of a human, now how are we going to say hi to your friends and that Investigation Team and the guy you promised to marry?” asked S@$.

“You come up with something, I don’t care,” said M15@10.

“Alright, we get another tournament, invite those thieves as well,” said S@$.

“Maybe I could have a rematch with Aigis!” said Ryoji.

“Sure, I’m going to be a surprise for them though, it’ll be fun,” said M15@10.

“Hah, yea, I think we could use a bit of Cipactli to make an Arena, maybe throw the Thieves their ‘Meta-nav’ and invite em to Inaba.” said S@$.

“I could do the same with my friends, I should have my phone on me and at least Aigis would notice,” said M15@10.

Another floor climbed, more of their name revealed. 

“Do ya think Jose is here?” asked Sh$.

“Probably, he was also down here to look for us,” said Min@10.

“I think I hear him right now,” said Sh$, hearing noises of a car.

Jose’s car quickly sped over to the (duo?) and he jumped out to greet them.

“Cranberry! Blueberry! Strawberry! You’re back!” said Jose.

“Yes we are Jose, and Strawberry?” asked Min@10.

“Yes mister, right there!” pointing behind Min@10, where a feminine figure whose features were slowly forming appeared.

“Whoa, it seems like the excess of memories you carried over formed me! I’m Kotone Shiomi! I am a potential person who had death sealed in me! We were childhood friends and we transferred to Gekkoukan together! We eventually got into a polyamory with Ryoji and Shinji, and I died in your arms, sorry about that.” said Kotone.

“No need, I’m sorry for invading all those private memories.” said Min@10, thinking of some memories of an alternate him who was the boyfriend of Kotone.

“Hey! Let's make memories together! I’m going to be in his head though, sorry I can’t join!” said Ryoji.

“No worries!” said Kotone.

“Well mister, misses, can I join you on your walk to the exit?” said Jose, as his car was too tiny for them all to fit.

“Yea, time to walk,” said Sh$.

“Wait, Kotone, do you owe a wedding to Yu?” asked Min@10.

“Yep! We fell for each other during the time we shared in another world made by some god!” said Kotone.

“I would say that would be problematic, but honestly us Persona users tend to get into way too many Polyamories,” said Min@10.

“Not me! Maybe that's cause I was alone most of the time when fighting,” said Sh$.

“Well if you try I wouldn’t blame you, we understand that forging strong bonds evolve to forging romantic bonds, multiple, at the same time,” said Min@1.

“Is this a universe where you literally had no choice but to ‘date’ all of the female members of your team while you just wanted to be friends?” said $h$.

“Luckily, no. I did friendzone them though, but only when they confessed to me. I never really gave them any vibes that I liked them that way,” said Min@10.

As they emerged from Cipactli more and more, they remembered more and more which one they were in. The more and more they remembered the more their details were defined. Sho’s scar was still there, hair still colored and shaped the same. He had some red stubble, grew a little bigger, and now has Black track pants, t-shirt with a pun and a black hoodie tied around the waist. He also had both of his Katanas, a black one with sapphires all over it and some scriptures inscribed on it, and another one where the blade was as clean and shiny as the sun, and the handle ornate wood with cloth on it. 

Minato had his signature blue hair in its signature pose, hiding one of his eyes. His hair grew long and became a ponytail that touched his back. Minato wore a blue drawstring zip-up hoodie over his casual shirt. He also wore a blue scar with yellow at the ends around his neck. He had earbuds running from his ears into his pockets, where his phone sat. His pants were baggy jeans. Minato had a holster on the inside of his hoodie with his Evoker in it. 

Kotone wore a long sleeved wool shirt, plaid skirt, red scarf, and had some red wireless earbuds in her ears, which connected to her phone. Her hair was styled as normal and she had her signature XXII in her hair. They all looked their age. 

During their long walk they had come up with a plan, wait until a week before golden week, send a invitation to Inaba to the Thieves via Leblanc, tell the Mitsuru’s Shadow Operatives via Minato to go to Inaba, send an advertisement via Midnight channel, and have a fun tournament.


	5. Dolls, Exposition, and MP4 Shenanigans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cause I really suck at keeping on one topic.
> 
> Also it seems really fitting that the going ons of what the IT do in the TV world would be taped by the 'public unconcious' and sent to them in whatever format is best.

During Goro’s time spent navigating the metaverse, he had learned on his own how to make useful devices. He had made a grappling hook out of a couple of crowbars and ropes, learned to make actual grenades, lockpicks, and several other tools. This meant Akechi was extremely good with his hands and making things that have intricate details.

This skill was supposed to be used for making the aforementioned tools, not knitting plushies with Kanji. He was internally questioned if the sight of an assassin with a body count that made Ted Bundy look like a bug exterminator knitting dolls with this guy was funny. He was knitting the first one to look like Robin Hood, with all the details and such. He even made a small bow out of a paperclip and some knit rope.

“Is that Robin Hood?” asked Kanji, looking at the well made doll.

“Yes,” said Goro.

“You made it very good, in fact a while ago at the request of the other Shadow Operatives and the team I made some dolls of our Personas,” said Kanji.

“Ah, really? I would imagine they would have been hard to make,” said Akechi.

“Not that much, all I need is a clear picture of what they look like and it wouldn’t be too hard with that,” said Kanji.

“Huh, well if I could I’d like to see those after I’m done,” said Goro.

“Alright,” said Kanji.

The next one Goro worked on was Loki. He easily made the figure white and black with a small figure. He grabbed a needle and stabbed it into the plush’s hand.

‘Yeoouch, why would you do that? The sword I wield is burning hot, not a needle that I stab myself with,” said Loki.

‘Fitting, selling fraudulent swords only to have one stab one’s hand,’ said Hereward.

“That loki?” asked Kanji.

“Yes, the sword is supposed to be Laevaetin, mythology wise it should be burning hot, but I can’t do that right now.

“Ah, neat, reminds me of Take Mikazuchi color wise, black and white with a large weapon.” said Kanji.

“neat,” said Goro.

Goro went to Hereward, whose figure was like Robin Hood, but colors changed. He easily made Hereward and quickly knit a small bow. 

“Hereward?” asked Kanji.

“Yes, it was a Persona I received when Joker fulfilled his promise of rejecting Demiurge's successor’s false reality, and fighting the successor to get back our reality, one where we thought I was dead,” said Akechi.

“Huh, neat. Well ya ain’t dead, you could probably visit him in due time,” said Kanji.

“That won’t be necessary, he shouldn’t miss me, plus I don’t even know where he is going anyways,” said Akechi.

“Well that’s fair I guess, well anyways, should I go over the Shadow Operatives we have? I know you know Yukari-san is one, but should I tell you about the others?” asked Kanji.

“Sure Kanji,” said Goro.

“Alright, so you know Mitsuru Kirijo, head of Kirijo group, that's obvious,” said Kanji.

“I follow, apparently she’s been a founding member of this S.E.E.S business I’ve heard about?” 

“Yea, she and the rest of em were tricked to eliminate these large shadows by a guy named Ikutsuki to summon death and end the world.”

“So a nihilist using a bunch of Persona using teenagers to further their own agenda, sounds familiar.”

“Yea sounds like a more competent Adachi or you.” 

“Yes.”

“Now then we have Ken Amada, he’s in his last year of high school and is joining the Shadow Ops again after he finishes, also doing whatever else he wants,” Kanji explained.

“Nice,”

“Also, I’m pretty sure his history is similar to yours, if not tuned down. His mom was killed by a guy named Shinjiro Aragaki due to an accident, he spent way too long to get revenge. One night when he tried to kill him, Shinjiro explained. Then fucking revolver jesus shows up and tries to shoot the kid, Shinjiro takes the shot and pays the ultimate price. Ken moves past the revenge and decides to live on for the future,” Kanji explained.

“All of this, when he was 10? When I was 10 I was being starved by foster parents, fueled on nothing but hatred and pure willpower,” said Goro.

“Well ya might get along swell! Also his dog is also a persona user, Koromaru, you don’t look surprised,” said Kanji.

“A fucking talkative, childish cat had a persona, why not a dog?” said Goro.

“Fair nuff, well anyways our next member is Aigis, anti-shadow suppression weapon. She’s a wildcard as well, powerful as Yu, except she has several guns and other weapons as part of her body. She’s one of the people who are usually on call when things need doing along with Yu. She has been his partner for a couple of bigger missions as well. Basically she’s a pretty reliable member for a lot of things,” said Kanji.

“Well that sounds relatively normal,” said Goro.

“Now we got Junpei Iori, little league coach and overall cool dude. He’s married to a chick that used to be part of an assassin group called Strega that used artificial Personas to kill people,” said Akechi.

“Sounds normal,” said Goro.

“Now we got Yukari Takeba, model and actor for Pink Argus. She’s pretty chill if I’m being honest, acts kinda like Rise in a way. She has a pretty damned strong sense of justice and loves giving inspiration to the kids with her role.” 

“Got it,” said Goro.

“Finally we got Labrys, an older model of a Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon. Instead of guns she has a rocket propelled axe in her that can be used as a jetpack, again the designers were really weird. She was involved in an incident here a couple years back where the town was enveloped by a red fog. There was a guy named Sho Minazuki who was trying to destroy the world, except he was being used by a god named Kagutuschi. We all have literally no clue where the guy is though, in May 2013 he just fell off the face of the earth. It’s really hard to lose him, his face being iconic. Anyways that's all of the members you don’t know or don’t know much about, anything you need?” asked Kanji.

“Not really, I’ve heard snippets from Shido over potential Persona users, although you kept the group so under wraps that not even his agents could find anything. Any moles that attempted to get in were either shut down by Aigis I’m assuming, or Yu’s interrogating ability.” said Goro.

“Yea, plus when the whole debacle was happening, we had no access to the place you guys were using, plus we had other missions to do, mostly minor gods related to the Demiurge popping in other places other than Tokyo. I suppose it was their effort to divert our attention from Tokyo,” said Kanji.

“That explains a bit, but anyways I guess we are waiting for something to happen?” 

“Well our group also does quite a bit outside of Shadow Operative business. Whenever Mitsuru needs something personally investigated she hires one or all of us. It’s usually to find out about embezzlement, conspiracies, checking things at facilities, thefts, among other things.” said Kanji.

“Do you do anything in Tokyo?” asked Goro.

“Not for a while, two years ago when your whole mess began a series of Shadow incidents popped up all over Japan. They were usually Angels that were screwing up shit. They were wandering Japan as well! It was a clusterfuck to find em and beat em up, I believe by the time we finished, the Thieves already killed the Demiurge and was almost getting the successor. When reality turned normal you were found in the streets by Fuuka because of her scanning abilities, and you were given to us for interrogation and decisions for further use. You know the story from there,” said Kanji.

“Well, anyways, knitting feels very different from crafting makeshift grenades,” said Goro.

“Holy shit you know how to make grenades? What the hell did you need those for?” asked Kanji.

“Mostly when I wanted to conserve SP in long runs, I had to learn quickly. I made quite a bit of them,” said Goro.

“Yeesh, we just bought a bag of ice cubes and it somehow works, just check 'em at enemies and they die easily enough,” said Kanji.

“I would imagine the store owner questioning what a group of teenagers needed multiple bags of ice for,” said Goro.

“Nah, it was Junes we got it from, and they don’t really care as long as it won’t make em lose money,” said Kanji.

“So did you create an automated ice grenade launcher from a tennis ball launcher?” asked Goro.

“Unfortunately no, the time we tried we blew up the launcher,” said Kanji.

“Huh, I remember one time when Joker and his merry band of thieves tried creating a nuke with a lot of paper mache, paint, a couple frames, and a lot of atomic matches,” said Goro.

“How did it go?” 

“It blew up in their face and I made a joke about them having several types of cancer, of which all of them freaked out about except Oracle, who was laughing at the situation.”

“Sounds like a normal day, our group tried some really weird shit, like trying to create an unbreakable reflecting shield.”

“Shield?”

“Yea we had a bunch of mirrors that reflected stuff, so we attached em to a blanket to create some sort of reflecting cloak. In the end senpai almost got his foot freezed off cause we really sucked at making this stuff.”

“I believe one time Skull got plant balm, rolled it up with some parchment, and made a weed joke. He actually did get high from that.”

“Wow, that kid probably broke several laws. You kept on referring to them by code name? Is there a reason you don’t refer to them by their actual name though?” 

“Because Yu never used his ability to force out their names, his reason for doing that is up in the air.”

“Alright I guess. Want to see a video of some stuff we filmed in the TV world? Cameras and video for some ungodly reason work there, plus whenever we do something a day later a tape or something of the sorts is delivered to us, with different camera angles and way too good audio.”

“Sure.”

Kanji grabbed out his laptop, went into a file in his custom file manager, entered several passwords, and did a camera scan. He searches through the files he has and goes into a folder named ‘Nostalgia’. In the folder are two folders, one named ‘raw,’ one named, ‘memed.’ He clicks onto the one titled raw and loads up the first video.

InvestigationTeamFunnyClips1.mp4

“You may have gone through the tricks up my sleeve's shadow, but have you seen the tricks down my jacket?” said a younger Yu, donning an open jacketed Yasogami school uniform.

“Partner! What the hell are you doing?” said a high school Yosuke, donning a Yasogami school uniform with the jacket closed. 

Yu used his hands to grab the inside of his jacket and reveal what was in it, showing several fireworks.

“Partner why are you carrying fireworks in your jacket?”

“Cause I can!” said a grinning Yu, “Yukiko! Light me up!”

“Uhh, ok! Persona!” yelled a younger Yukiko, wearing a red school uniform. Her initial persona appeared behind her and elegantly sent a flame to Yu.

The flame reached the back of his jacket and several fireworks went from his jacket to the shadow, killing it instantly.

“Partner what the hell were you doing?”

“Doing something that looks cool,” said a grinning Yu.

“Holy crap guys that was awesome!” came the voice of a younger Chie, manning the camera they were carrying.

“Yeesh guys why did we have to buy the Junes extra stock of fireworks.” said Yosuke.

“You know we still have a ton! Why don’t we try to fly!” said Chie.

“If you break your legs I’m not healing you,” said Yosuke.

“I will!” said Yukiko.

“Alright, so who votes to fly?” said Yu.

“Me!” said Chie and Yukiko. Yosuke groaned at Yu's insistence on this but let it happen.

Yu’s plan was to get a bunch of string, tie up all of the fireworks, and attach them to his back. Yu did this with some strong rope and asked Yukiko to light the fireworks up. What ended up happening was that he did fly, but out of control and went through the halls, killing several shadows instantly. 

He leaves behind shadow dust, dropped materials, and several random medicines. He ends up cutting the rope and dropping to the floor, letting the fireworks almost blow a wall open in the castle.

“I didn’t break my legs, I’m fine!” said Yu, laying on his back.

“Holy crap partner, you left behind a lot of bodies, you injured?” said Yosuke.

“That was so cool! Imagine you doing that in a movie!” said Chie.

“Pffffttt, I can totally imagine him saying some stupid one liner with confidence,” said Yukiko.

The video ends there.

“So you tried creating a jetpack?”

“They did it before I was there, plus even I could see the flaws in their plan.”

“Did they not realize the fireworks might explode?”

“They were hormonal teens, still kinda act like it.”

“I heard the way you acted around Naoto, reminds me of how a certain Queen acted to Noir.”

“Who told ya bout that? Yosuke? That damned bear?”

“Nope, Naoto herself actually.”

“Talking about me?” said Naoto, coming in with her blue trench coat made by Kanji to comfort her more than a binder. It appeared she just finished with a case.

“I was just talking about how Kanji here acted like a sentimental bumbling fool when it came to you,” said Goro.

“That harsh, I would say he was acting like a bumbling fool, not sentimental,” said Naoto, pleasantly chuckling.

“Ok, ok, so Naoto wanna watch some clips with us?” asked Kanji.

“Sure Kanji,” said Naoto, putting her coat on the rack and sitting down with the two.

YuIsAnIdiot.mp4

“Kanji?” asked Yu.

“Yea Senpai?”

“Do you have Zionga?” 

“Yes!”

“Could you try and charge my phone with it?” said Yu, holding out his phone with the battery at red.

“.... why?”

“I don’t want to have to walk all the way to home with nothing to do,” said Yu.

“Ok? Just put it on the floor and I’ll hit it,” said Kanji.

Yu put his phone on the floor and gave a thumbs up to Kanji. Kanji raised his folding chair and summoned his Persona, with lightning striking the phone.

Yu noticed the charge going up, “Neat it worked,” and he picked it up. He noticed it was hot and it exploded in his hands, giving him 1st degree burns. Yu didn’t even look surprised.

Yukiko was laughing on the floor laughing, Chie and Kanji were panicking, and Yosuke was groaning at his partner’s stupidity while getting his initial Persona, Jiraya, to heal Yu.

The video ended there, Goro stared at Kanji and looked at Naoto, who was holding back laughs.

“Was your leader a fucking imbecile?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. He is very smart, actually piecing together the mystery of Adachi and Izanami. Sometimes though he lacks all forms of foresight,” said Naoto.

“Yea, or he knows and just doesn’t care, which could be worse,” said Kanji.

The conversation ended from there and Kanji moved onto the next video.

MusicVid.mp4

The music started with some Harmonica, then some other instruments joined in. The camera showed cut shots of various dungeons they explored, then the lyrics began.

‘Truth is elusive, it’s nowhere to be found.’ played as Yu was in a horror film looking movie studio and was dancing along with the music, mouthing to the lyrics. The camera cut to the next shot.

‘Yea, the truth can never be written,’ played as Yosuke was in a nightmarish version of the shopping district, dancing and mouthing to the song with a garbage can.

‘Down it’s not in any magazine,’ played as Chie was in a castle, putting a couple of kicks in her dance while mouthing to the song.

‘You can’t see it on your TV screen,’ played as Yukiko spun around and danced in the throne room of the castle. 

‘Truth is evasive, though you might have the facts,’ played as Kanji was dancing in a sauna, mouthing to the lyrics as well.

‘Got it straight, you think then it all-’ played as Rise was in a strip club, doing a dance on the stage while mouthing to the lyrics.

‘Cracks wide open, you can search the world far and wide,’ played as Naoto was in a secret layer looking place, playing with her cap while dancing.

‘The only truth that you can ever find is-’ played as Teddie danced and opened his costume, revealing some darkness which the camera zoomed into.

‘In another, a soul that got the same burning need, to find what's neath the cover up,’ played as Yu was dancing and mouthing the lyrics in a messed up version of Inaba, covered with police tape.

‘The one can’t be without the true other, let’s get together and see what we can uncover,’ played as Yu and Marie were dancing, with Izanagi and Kaguya behind them.

‘One, that defines your world gives you truth and light,’ played as pictures of the team flashed as the lyrics played.

‘One that excels, special enough to guide your way through, the Shadow world,’ played as the Camera went forward into a room with Yosuke, grinning and waving. The camera went into another room with Yukiko and Chie smiling at the camera. 

The camera goes into a bathouse with Kanji giving a thumbs up to the camera. The camera goes through another door to get to a strip club with Rise giving a wide smile. The camera goes to Naoto in the secret laboratory, smiling while pointing her gun up.

The camera finally goes to Teddie, in the TV station, and he opens his costume to show a void, where the Camera goes, to go forward onto a Yu standing on a land before clear skies, and he throws his glasses when ‘the shadow world’ plays. The song ends there.

“Wow, that was amazing,” said Goro.

“I know right? We made it after we got back for winter, and we decided to make it to remember the stuff we’ve been through, it was really fun. Rise was super stoked for it as well!” said Kanji.

“I agree, this project turned out extremely successful and even Mitsuru was impressed with the quality of what we made.” said Naoto.

The rest of the day was just them going through clips and commentating or inputting thoughts.


	6. Shopping and Crying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cause fuck yea! Also the whole 'Akira wears masks' is a valid argument/belief. I just believe that Akira isn't exactly wearing a mask, but is putting one of his traits at the front when talking to friends. Like when talking to Makoto he brings out his inner goofball to lighten the mood. When talking to Futaba he brings out his inner nerd to match her references. Etc etc. All of those times it was him, but he brought out a part of his personality to fit his friends better to help them with their end goal

When Rise insisted for Goro to go shopping with her, Goro initially refused. Rise was adamant about Goro going with her because she wants to spend time with the real ‘ace detective,’ and not the prince. 

Goro agrees but only agrees to go in a disguise, Rise gives the ok. 

This infuriating behavior from the idol reminded Goro of a certain blonde model, how during free days of that nightmare reality she would invite him out for crepes or shopping.

He never understood her behavior, all but 3 others left him alone or kept interactions to a minimum. Akira was always a phenomenon, taking an interest in him and wanting to hang out with him. He found himself caring for Akira immensely, maybe this was love? Probably.

Futaba was also odd, but he supposed accidently unveiling he was a big fan of featherman could override the girl’s hesitance towards him. He supposed putting up with incessant ramblings would be better, since those ramblings were about a series he cared for immensely. Plus debating about featherman with Futaba was actually fun.

While acting prickly towards her, he couldn’t really hate Sumire. Outside of Akira, Sumire would probably be one of the members of the thieves that didn’t make him want to rub the insides of his lungs with sandpaper. He found himself caring for her in a way he couldn’t understand. On multiple ‘dates’ (Akira insisted) he found himself dragging himself along with Akira and Sumire. He probably had a soft spot for the girl.

Funnily enough, on a final date with Akira and Sumire at a cafe, Akira came up with something to lighten the mood before the day of fates. He laughed at how Sumire’s persona was a princess, he was called the detective prince, and he was the joker, or jester. Akira dubbed them the ‘Royal Trio.’ Goro guessed the duo is now the Princeless court. 

The rest of the thieves he either doesn’t care, or actively dislikes them. 

Anyways, onto the shopping trip, after getting dressed he went to the door and found Rise waiting for him. They decided to take her car. They got in and after a couple of minutes they got into traffic. Rise decided to break the silence by asking first.

“Oh yea it’s Valentine's day, got a special someone sketchy ‘kechi?”

“If you call me that I’ll kill my own shadow, and not anyone I can reach.”

“C’mon you got to fourth base with these Joker and Violet people!”

“Again, not anyone I can reach.”

“Fine, well anyways it’s not like you didn’t have anyone to be friends with other than those guys. Right?”

“Nope, the closest I got was two people. Muhen, the bar owner of my favorite Jazz club, and Sae Nijima, a coworker that I was friends with. I don’t know what the latter feels about me though, knowing that I basically was the cause of most of her suffering.”

“Yeesh, you’re thinking about possibilities. She might not hate you y'know, not that many people hate you.”

“Want me to go down the list?”

“Nope!”

“Very well.” 

They arrived at Okina City and the duo walked around the mall.

“So, what are we getting here?”

“I don’t know! Check out random stuff, buy what seems interesting. I’m good on clothes so I’m going to wander with you!”

“Going here without a plan is foolish to say the least,”

“Why did you come along? Wanna buy something Sketchy ‘Kechi?”

“I’ll wander with you, plus buying clothes is a foolish idea, one can only wear so much clothes at once.”

“Hmph! Fine, but I like having a versatile wardrobe!” 

“Versatile and excessive are two different things, Rise.”

The two eventually came upon a store that sold things related to manga, animes, and games. 

“Do you like any particular manga or game Rise?”

“Not particularly. Although I really like Romance, Rom Coms, Drama, and other things like that!”

“Ahh, well anyways I found something I might like.”

“What is it?”

“A new laser gun.”

“Really? We both know those don’t work in the Midnight Channel, so why?”

“It’s from Featherman, I must get it.”

“Nerd.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Sure Sketchy ‘Kechi.”

They went over to the clothes shop, where Akechi looked among the costumes.

“So this is where your leader bought several costumes?”

“Yep!”

“May I ask why?”

“I don’t know, he always did a lot of weird stuff, like zoning out at random places and getting stronger personas out of nowhere, I think he explained it was something called the Velvet Room and there was a long nosed person named Igor.”

“Sounds vaguely familiar.”

“Yep!”

“Oh yea, apparently your Persona gained the ability to fight?”

“Oh yea! I can switch my Persona to a fighting version, although they turn back to Himiko, I’m lucky I can do it!”

“You used a microphone stand to fight.”

“Moronji used a chair!” 

“Yes, but a microphone stand? Really? Were you going to hypnotize them with singing? Were you going to give them brain damage by shrieking?”

“No! I whacked them with it! It worked anyways so no complaining. Plus you told us you used a lightsaber Sketchy ‘Kechi!”

“Yes, but that was me testing the limits of that world, not just grabbing whatever I had and whacking people with it.”

“Hmmph! I used the power of music! By that I mean that I somehow summoned music notes that damaged people when I attacked.”

“Anything could happen in those worlds, so that is not out of possibility.”

“I mean you guys did ‘steal hearts,’ I can’t imagine how many poor fools used that pick up line when they were popular.”

“Tell me about it, Joker himself used that line on me.”

The rest of the trip went swell, Goro actually enjoying talking with the Idol.

At **Leblanc**

Akira was lonely, very lonely. It was morning and he just woke up. He quickly got down and was reminded by the morning news of the date he dreaded. It was Valentine’s, another damned reminder of the one person he had failed.

All of the thieves understood his connection with Goro was close, they never exactly knew how close but they could make guesses that Akira was pining for the detective. He was pretty sure that Ann, Futaba, Haru, and Morgana understood how he felt the most.

He loved all of his friends dearly, but he always wore a certain part of himself foremost around them. He was still himself when interacting, but he was a certain part of himself first. He was always a helping hand, a shoulder to lean on, and he liked it that way.

Goro never required that. There was no favor or long term goal he needed from him, they just spoke. He actually could take down those masks and speak in earnest. In turn Goro sometimes loosened his mask as well.

When he came back to Leblanc after school, Morgana had taken a walk and Sojiro had left Leblanc to him, so he made himself his own coffee and a blue mountain. He sat down in a booth, set down the blue mountain across from him, drank his own coffee, and waited for a friend that never came. 

His pent up emotions that were present for the day just overflowed from him. He did something he never did before, not when he was arrested, when his parents berated him, and not when Shiho tried jumping. 

He never did this not when faced with Futaba’s tragic past, not even when Okumura died. He was angry at those times, but the times when he did this, he was personally affected. He only did this two times before. After the interrogation room and after the boiler room.

He cried, sobbing into his sleeve as he began to rest on the table, weeping to himself and letting the emotions out. The trauma of this year, losing someone dear to him, it caught up to him. He sobbed for god knows how long, he eventually fell asleep while crying, tears flowing on the table right before the clock hit 6.

In **Futaba’s Room**

During this Futaba had heard what Akira was doing in the cafe, hearing how he cried. He had heard this after the interrogation room, which he quickly recovered. He had heard this after the boiler room, of which he never really did. He was still Joker, still Akira, but his mood was dampened the days after the boiler room. 

He was so lively and wild when the dream reality happened, then when Maruki told him of Akechi’s fate, he suddenly was hit with a wave of sorrow. He heard him cry. Akechi may have done horrible things, but he did what he could to amend at the end, fighting for his own justice even if it meant death.

She could never really forgive him for what happened to her mother. She got over it, and got along with him when he wasn’t acting like a smug pretentious jackass well enough. She understood how Akira felt towards Akechi. A small pang of jealousy rose in Futaba, but was vastly overshadowed by Futaba’s sympathy.

She understood how losing someone affected oneself, and she understood the pain Akira was going through. 

She drank the last of her drink and got ready to go to Leblanc to cheer him up. 

She opened the door carefully, seeing Akira sleeping in a pool of his own tears in a booth, sitting across from a blue mountain, just how Akechi liked it.

She didn’t want to wake him up just yet, so she opened up the group chat to message the others.

 **StealUrHear**

Futaba: Uhh guys

Haru: Yes Futaba-chan?

Futaba: How do I say this

Ann: What is it ‘taba?

Futaba: Well, Akira’s drowning in his own tears

Ryuji: For real?

Yusuke: I worry, do you know why?

Makoto: Yes, Futaba, do you know why?

Sumire: Is senpai ok?

Futaba: Well it’s Valentines soo

Haru: Oh

Ann: Oh

Sumire: Oh

Ryuji: what? 

Yusuke: That means?

Makoto: I don’t comprehend

Futaba: There's a blue mountain on the table next to him

Ryuji: I still don’t understand

Yusuke: Nor do I

Makoto: I don’t know what you mean Futaba

Futaba: He misses Akechi you dumbasses

Yusuke: Ohhhh, that makes sense, the look that Akira gave Akechi was always a fond one, no matter the situation.

Ryuji: Ok?

Makoto: Ooooooh, that explains a bit

Haru: Mona-chan says that skull is an idiot

Ryuji: wtf cat?

Ann: Well anyways, I kinda miss him as well, when he dropped the prince demeanor it was refreshing to hear him

Haru: While I don’t like Akechi-kun as a person that much, I can understand he was very close to Akira

Sumire: I miss Akechi as well tbh…

Futaba: Yea, but more importantly ‘kira is drowning in his tears

Haru: should we come over to cheer him up?

Haru: Mona says that Ryuji probably could

Ryuji: what's that supposed to mean?

Sumire: I could come over to cheer him up! Who else is coming?

Makoto: My day’s free right now, I’m coming

Yusuke: I’m coming

Haru: I’ll come!

Ryuji: Since its for my bro, sure

Ann: Same!

Futaba: I’ll wait here, bring some food or smth

Futaba: Quest: Cheer Dumbass Up. Start!

The thieves arrived some time later. Yusuke came first with just his art equipment, and started painting Akira to the irritation of Futaba. 

Ryuji came running in with some convenience store snacks, looking sympathetically at Akira. Akira was laying in a puddle of his tears across from the Blue Mountain without someone to drink it. 

Makoto arrived with haru, carrying some drinks and some snacks. Haru lamented over Akira’s state and Makoto agreed with her.

Sumire arrived with Ann, carrying some things from a bakery, laying it down on the counter. 

Futaba checked if all of them were there, and got the ok to wake Akira up.

Akira was dreaming when he was woken up. He was dreaming of himself at Goro’s grave, worn down, and Akira himself was crying at it. Akira was woken up to voices and being shaken. He felt his face was wet and hot, probably tears. 

“Wake up sleepy head!” said Futaba.

“What happened?” asked Akira, surveying Leblanc, then noticing they saw him in a puddle of his own tears.

“We know you’ve been crying Akira-kun, so we’ve come to cheer you up!” said Haru.

“We know you miss Goro-Senpai, senpai. Please let us help ease the heartache!” said Sumire.

“If you’re down in the dumps bro, I'll do anything to cheer you up,” said Ryuji.

“Yep!” said Ann.

“Thank you guys, seriously, I needed this.” said Akira as he wiped the tears and grabbed the cold Blue Mountain. He raised the cup, as did the rest of them with their sodas.

“To Goro!” said Akira, followed by the rest of them.

Unbeknownst to them, the Goro Akechi they thought to be rotting was actually enjoying a nice dinner with the Investigation Team.


	7. Drinking in the Pub with the Gang

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yeap, don't worry Akechi doesn't drink alcohol

>March 15, 2017

Goro didn’t like alcohol, not much. He did occasionally steal some from Shido’s office whenever he did something that disgusted him. He’s no lightweight, but he does not drink regularly.

He did not expect to have to deal with a half drunk Investigation Team on one of their ‘family outings,’ more like everyone drinks in the local pub. Kanji, Yu, Labrys, and Marie were not drunk, befitting their large stature, robotic biology, and literal goddess state. The rest (except Teddie) were as drunk as office workers who were drinking away their sorrows.

They fortunately carried enough common sense in their alcohol ridden brains to at least order the bartender to never give him alcohol, only soft drinks. 

Rise was drunkenly complaining about her workplace struggles.

“Hic, I should, Hic, go up to Inoue-san, and -hic- tell him that -hic- that the director is a sexual assaulting douchebag!” 

Naoto was complaining about the problems that she faced during the cases she had abroad. She still worked with the team but she was on call for the Tokyo Police force and was still working for the Shirogane detective agency for big cases.

“Then the client tells me to use my ‘psychic detective powers’ to mind read his ass and tell him who the criminal is! Does this person think I’m Conan bloody Edogawa?”

Teddie was not drunk, his biology basically doesn’t allow him to be drunk at all. Unfortunately he is as oblivious as a child, he may as well be drunk 24/7. Fortunately, he could contain himself in this scenario, in the way that he was playing a game console inside of his suit. 

Yosuke found himself complaining about random shit he had to deal with on some random trip he had to Kyoto for detective work.

Labrys was just playing games with Teddie. Labrys had updated her body to look more the age of Teddie and Yu for convenience's sake. She always wore a casual t-shirt and a skirt on her body because they were cheap and easily replaceable. 

Marie was just drinking for fun, mostly because the rest of the team was there, also to make sure they don’t fuck stuff up.

Chie and Yukiko were drunkenly flirting with each other, of which they swiftly began to make out. 

Kanji and Yu were the only non drunk people in the pub. They were just either trying to keep the Team from doing something stupid, talking about random things happening, or a future case.

The bartender (god bless their soul for enduring the drunken band of idiotic investigators) was just happily wiping a glass while refilling Akechi’s drink of whatever root beer they had.

The real idiocy began when Rise decided to dig up some chopsticks and mark one.

“Lets-hic-play the kings game!”

“Yea!” said Yukiko.

“Why not!” said Chie.

Naoto was just drunkenly cuddling Kanji, who was trying to keep her from doing something she would regret while drunk.

Yu was shuddering with fear when Rise mentioned the kings game

In **Yu’s Mind**

Why. Won’t. That. Game. Die. Already. 

I have played this game once after the first time, it ended horribly.

“And you can never show your face in the Vegas strip, ever again!” said Mitsuru, furious after finding out what happened last game. Yu could hardly believe what he and his team had done while drunk.

They were usually very professional in the places they visited for shadow work. This was not one of those cases. They were in a hotel room, they were bored, they had booze. The ensuing chaos was so bad it almost began to burn a casino down.

Outside of **Yu’s Mind**

Yu handed a stun gun he kept on himself to the barkeep.

“Please don’t hesitate to use this if we do something stupid,” said Yu.

“Understood Yu-kun,” said the old lady who was the bartender.

“Alright guys let's play,” unenthusiastically said Yu. Kanji and Naoto didn’t bother, instead Naoto was drunkenly cuddling with Kanji. 

The game started relatively normally, with Teddie getting the stick.

“King teddie declares that number 3 has to kiss me or drink a shot of whiskey!”

“I’m 3! I’ll kiss ya Ted!” said Labrys, knowing that kissing Teddie would be more fun than drinking something that wouldn’t do anything.

Teddie lept at Labrys, frantically kissing her on the mouth while they shared a stool. The rest of the team continued on without them. 

Goro just laughed at the group's shenanigans, used to how they acted. The situation felt nostalgic enough, so he began to sing a song, the only song he was good at, the only song he refuses to forget.

“Let’s say goodbye with a smile, dear  
Just for a while, dear  
We must part  
Don’t let this parting upset you  
I’ll not forget you sweetheart”

Akechi’s singing was noticed by the gang, who quickly stopped and listened to him. To Akechi, he was no longer in the pub, but in his old house with old memories of his mother. All three of his Personas sang together with him in his mind.

“We’ll meet again  
Don’t know where  
Don’t know when  
But we’ll meet again some sunny day.”

He remembered that she sang this song a lot, seemingly something that reminded her of happier days. She sang this to him and he sang along, happily dancing with her as he sang off tune. He learned how to sing correctly later though.

“Keep smiling through,  
Just like you always do  
‘Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away.”

To Akechi, the blue skies were his mother. No matter the day no matter the bully, his mother would cheer him up by singing. It was one of her many talents, she didn’t use money, nor toys or food. She sang a beautiful song to Goro, and it always worked.

“So will you please say hello  
To the folks that I know  
Tell them I won’t be long”

Akechi always kept this song close to him. He always reminded himself with this song that after he had finished his quest, he would be with his mother again. That was one of his motivations before he found a reason to live beyond revenge, found in a black haired man and the detectives he works with.

“They’ll be happy to know  
That as you saw me go  
I was singing this song”

Akechi’s memory of her funeral is vivid. He remembered that he was the only one there, and a police officer and the person taking him to an orphanage. That fateful funeral marked the beginning of his descent. He cried at her grave and promised he would fulfill her dying wishes.

“We’ll meet again  
Don’t know where  
Don’t know when.”

Back when he was Shido’s puppet, Goro knew he wouldn’t. His mother would be among the angels in heaven while he rotted eternally in hell for his crimes. He would be born as the bastard child doomed from the beginning and would die as such.

Then, the others joined in, as horrible as they might have sounded, it was a relief to Goro, a reminder of his new friends.

“We’ll meet again  
Don’t know where  
Don’t know when!” 

The team sang the song in unison, joyful and smiling proudly. They all sang together in the best voices they could muster.

“Keep smiling through  
Just like you always do  
‘Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away!”

He was reminded of the Team’s endless smiles, their love, their acceptance. He wasn’t craving love from the bald shit sperm donor called Shido. He was craving affection from people, who compared to him, were saints. 

“So will you please say hello  
To the folks that I know  
That I won’t be long.”

Goro knew that he should talk to Akira, that he should let him know, but not now, he should gain the ability to be able to do so first. He knew he had to at least give him a little closure.

“They’ll be happy to know  
That as you saw me go  
I was singing this song!” 

The unrelenting cheerieness even in the face of death. All of them had looked death in the eyes on multiple occasions, and smiled while resisting. 

“We’ll meet again  
Don’t know where  
Don’t know when  
But we’ll meet again some sunny day.”

The crew sang the last lyrics joyfully, and Goro reminisced on his past, how he had brought himself here. He had killed his way to be backstabbed, now he was cared for by actually good people. It reminded him of Akira’s joy and attachment to him. 

The few times he had sung this song to people outside of his mother, it was always to Akira. He had told Akira that his mother sang this song to cheer him up with her best voice. He sang this song before the day of fates and he sang that song when trapped behind the boiler room wall. He always wore a smile, twisted or not, while singing, just as mom once did.

Goro shed some tears, drank the rest of his root beer while silently cheering to Akira that he found a family, and that he’ll come back for him one day.

In **The Depths of Cipactli**

“Oh god how long have we been here Koto-chan?” asked Sho, irritated at how long the hike was taking them.

“Well Sho, we’ve been here for a couple of weeks,” said Kotone, sighing. They were living off of foods dropped off of shadows and whatever Jose had.

“How big is Cipactli anyways?” asked Sho.

“I don’t care, we’ll just walk anyways. It can’t take that long,” said Minato, cooking some raw meat dropped from a shadow over a makeshift fire made from shadow materials. 

“Dude, I swear to whatever divine entity that isn’t trying to end humanity, we need to get out of here. How long until we can leave, Jose?” asked Sho.

“Well mister, I think we’re about halfway,” said Jose, innocently looking at his map.

“What’s the date?” asked Sho.

“I think it’s March 5th mister!” said Jose.

“So we got around another month of walking, screw it, that's fine”

“Meals ready! Get ready for fire pit cooked shadow meat!” said Minato.

“Yay! I bet it’ll be so delicious Mina-kun!” said Kotone, she enjoyed the taste of the meat by now. It helped that shadows also dropped salt. Thank Philemon the population of Tokyo also played video games.

“Alright alright, yeesh. So anyways, I never actually asked, but what Personas do you guys have right now?”

“Hmm? Well Koto-chan and I share Ryoji. We both have a version of Orpheus and Messiah. I do have Zeus while she has Orpheus’s special Telos version. We also have all of the ultimate personas that represent our bonds that chained us as the great seal. What do you have Sho?” said Minato.

“Well, I got my fool and world persona, you already know about them. I got Minazuki technically, or is he basically another person? Anyways I got him, and then I got the ones that represent my friends that were my weapons in the eternal war with the moon,” said Sho.

“Alright anyways, how many reapers have we killed anyways? We’ve been here so long that I can’t remember. ” asked Minato

“Considering we have bags of random clothes, weapons, alcohol, and omnipotent orbs. Alot.” said Minato. 

“We can’t eat glass and pure fucking energy Mina-kun,” said Sho.

“I don’t know, it might be preferable to eating the manifestation of humanity's desires,” said Kotone.

“Mitsuru would probably nag at us to eat something healthy,” said Minato before chuckling.

“I don’t know, most of my interactions with your friends have been stabbing, shooting, bludgeoning, or magic,” said Sho.

“That’s cause you tried to destroy the world ya dumb goof!” said Kotone.

“Yea yea I was and am an idiot I don’t need ya to tell me that,” said Sho.

At this point in their journey, they had changed clothes. Kotone wore a dark trench coat, yellow scarf, heels, and tight pants. Kotone had Vel Vel Muraga, a nagatina she used during the battle with Nyx.

Minato wore a black and white striped t-shirt underneath a partly buttoned up jacket, a tan scarf, jeans, and his hairstyle was still the same. He has kept the blade he had during the battle with Nyx, which was Lucifer’s Blade.

Sho was wearing the same clothes as before, not bothering to use any of the clothes they got. Minato and Minako used their spare time to unwind the clothes into their base form, and respindle them to make clothes.

Apparently clothes making is faster and easier in the cognitive realm. 

**In the Shiroku Pub**

Most of the team was playing some new games that the hostess bought for the bar, Goro and Yu were talking about the newest assignment from Mitsuru.

**Yu Narukami to Mit-Chan**

Mit-chan: Narukami, I have an assignment

Yu: Yea Mitsuru?

Mit-chan: I am a little worried that Shido’s conspiracy still lingers in our corporations, we didn’t have you do anything in our Tokyo division for the past two years, I’d like you to sweep our facilities in Tokyo to check if there is anything shady going on. I’ll have you and your team meet with Fuuka and Aigis for this assignment

Yu: Got it, when should we arrive?

Mit-Chan: March 19 please

Yu: Got it

“So Mitsuru needs us to sweep all of her facilities?” asked Goro.

“Considering we were wandering everywhere across Japan except Tokyo, I understand,” said Yu.

“Alright. Security concerning me is covered right?” 

“Yea we got Fuuka, she’s pretty good at what she does.”


	8. Tokyo Adventures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok I have a decent plan on what I want to do after this chapter
> 
> I want the main place to be Inaba for a while. The next chapters will be in a nebulous time period after March 23rd and April 20th. 
> 
> The next chapters will be Akira's return and school like and Akechi fluff with the IT

Funnily enough, Goro might have come up with why he didn’t die on that fateful day in the boiler room. He remembered falling asleep, but then remembers waking up a day later. It seems like when he died he slowly was lost in the public eye, no mentions of him ever in the media.

The reason for this might be that the public recognition he had allowed him to come back, but he died in the eyes of the public as a result. As such the result was he basically had a failsafe back then.

Funnily enough, if this was the case it seems that he was erased in more ways than one. Any searches of his name were met with nothing, all traces of him on the internet were gone, erased. It seems either Oracle of ‘Lucia’ has erased his existence, or dying in the public eye literally means that the general public does not have any more records of him. 

Another part of his theory is that only shadows that were under Demiurge's control had Goro erased from their minds. That would mean all Persona users were essentially immune to the mind wipe. That would explain why the thieves and the Investigation Team remembered him. 

This is all a theory though, so he thinks to mention this to Mitsuru whenever they will first meet.

Those were some of the thoughts Goro kept in his head as he walked around Tokyo with Aigis and Yu on the 20th. Yu was talking to Aigis about their newest assignment, which was to sweep Kirijo facilities for any marks the conspiracy left behind. 

Yu and Aigis were talking about possible remnants of the conspiracy or spies still in the company while Goro gave his opinion sometimes about the situation. Fortunately the group understood his adamance about keeping his state of living secret, so ‘Lucia’ is keeping tabs on security on him. 

Fortunately he stopped doubting her skill when she began to tell him all of his passwords, all of them. 

**At Fuuka**

Fuuka was doing security for Akechi while he was in Tokyo. 

Fuuka honestly didn’t know what to think of the ace detective. On one hand he was the black mask, responsible for hundreds of deaths. On another hand he was literally made to be doomed. All of the events that led to him killing were handcrafted by a malevolent god that wanted to rig a game.

By the time he was met by the thieves he was already twisted by years of hatred and manipulation from Shido. The thieves that Akechi had talked about sounded interesting, particularly this Oracle person. Another master hacker? It would be nice to have someone else to do this sort of stuff with.

**In Tokyo**

The trio were walking around to various Kirijo facilities for a run down of their importance and suspicions they held on spies implanted in them. Goro’s role in the conversation was relegated to giving his own information and theories. 

When they were done early in the morning Yu sighed in his signature carefree fashion and asked Aigis something.

“Hey Aigis, wanna get a drink at your place? Been a long time since we saw each other,” asked Yu.

“Yu, it has been a month since we’ve seen each other, we were partners for the last half of the time we spent destroying the Demiurge’s distractions,” said Aigis.

“Uh, I want to strengthen my bond with you?”

“Fine, but we will be using Mitsuru’s apartment, she has some moderately cheap alcohol for my discretion. Also no serving for Akechi-kun.”

“Great!” said Yu. He always enjoyed Aigis’s company. Life and death situations were always great bonding moments but Aigis was usually out of reach in Tokyo. That meant that those small relaxing moments they could have were to be valued.

“Yu, are you an alcoholic?” poked Akechi. He knew that Yu never really drank that much, only when out with friends. His hangouts are surprisingly sparse as his friends have many things to attend to in their lives.

 **At Mitsuru’s**

Aigis was making some cocktails while talking with Yu and Akechi.

“So Akechi-kun, how are you getting used to your new life?” asked Aigis.

“Pretty used to it, deal with Yu’s random absurdities, hang out with friends, solve cases,” said Akechi.

“I remember one time when we were hunting down an angel, he wanted to tear off it’s wings to fly,” said Aigis, chuckling. Aigis handed a cocktail to Yu and a coffee to Goro.

“Would have worked-” Yu was interrupted by Akechi.

“Blegh, ok could I make a request?” said Akechi, after dumping his coffee.

“Yes?” asked Aigis.

“Could I get a blue mountain from Leblanc, it’s in Yongen Jaya.”

“Ok, I’ll go,” said Aigis.

Then the door opened, revealing Mitsuru Kirijo in a business suit, looking extremely tired.

“Hello Mitsuru-san,” said Aigis.

“You two are going out?” asked Mitsuru.

“She’s getting coffee,” said Yu.

“Alright, Yu, you can go with Aigis. I’ll talk with Akechi-kun here,” said Mitsuru.

“Alright,” said Goro.

Aigis and Yu left the apartment to take a cab to Leblanc. The ride was mostly idle talk about what both of them were doing and funny stories. 

“How is Labrys doing?”

“Oh Labrys? She and Teddie are great together, last thing I checked was that the two created some sort of duo attack,” said Yu.

“Ah, good. It is nice to know my big sister is doing well.”

“What about you? Got any closer to finding Minato?” asked Yu. Yu remembered all of what happened with Rei and Zen, but chose to keep it secret until Minato came. Minato still owes him a wedding. Well that might be something to discuss later as he knows Minato had a romantic relationship with Aigis.

“No, we have no contact with Elizabeth so we cannot tell if there is any news.”

“Any news on Sho?” 

“No, he has been missing for years now. There are no signs he exists anymore. He left no trail.”

“Surprising, he’s not exactly subtle but he might turn up eventually.”

“How is Margaret?”

“Still sending me Jojo memes. So she is good. It appears she has recovered along with Igor and Theo from the Demiurge’s attack.”

“Ah, good.”

The cab stopped, and they arrived in Yongen Jaya at 10 AM nearby Leblanc. They got out, paid the cab driver, and walked to Leblanc.

**Leblanc**

Sojiro has seen his fair share of weird customers. But a foreign looking teenage girl wearing a professional’s suit with a young man with a grey and black suit may top it all. He’s seen enough government officials to know how they carry themselves and these people carry themselves like seasoned professionals.

“What do you want?” asked Sojiro. 

“Could I get anything that is stupidly bitter?” asked Yu.

“Alright black coffee for you, do you want anything miss?”

“I’d like a blue mountain sir,” said Aigis.

“Alright,” Sojiro got to work on the odd duo’s coffee. 

“Anyways, Aigis, Margaret once did this joke where she made an Ardha do the barrage punch thing from Jojo.”

“Ah, speaking of Margaret. When I asked Yosuke of a joke he told me to ask you, so why did she call you a ‘man whore?’”

In response to that Sojiro chuckled a bit. These kids may look like professionals, but they are still kids.

**In Futaba’s Room**

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA” laughed Futaba. She was laughing at the situation she was hearing, in fact she recorded it and was saving it for chuckles. 

**In Leblanc**

“Uhhh, ok that requires context. Ok now that I think about it the context is not good. In the school festival Margaret had a fortune telling booth. She told Nanako that I was a man-whore. Maybe it was because most of the people I know had some sort of crush on me in high school?” said Yu, a little worried. The team called him that a lot when it suited them or when it was funny. 

“Ah, that makes sense.” said Aigis.

“Here’s your coffee kids,” said Sojiro, giving them two cups.

“Thank you eh-” 

“Sojiro Sakura, call me boss,” said Sojiro, interrupting Yu.

“Thank you ‘boss’” said Aigis, sipping the coffee slowly. The coffee was slowly going to a heated containment unit in her body so she could save it for Akechi. 

Sojiro saw no other customers, so he decided to get some coffee for himself and talk to his new customers. 

“So you were a charmer in school? I was quite a ladies man myself. Hooo boy,” started Sojiro.

**In Futaba’s Room**

“Whoa dad! What the heck!” said Futaba, a little grossed out.

**Leblanc**

“I was less of one on purpose and more of an accidental one. And less of a ladies man and more of a everyone's man” said Yu, sighing at some of his friend’s blatant crushes. Luckily he got the option of one giant polyamory with his closest friends.

“Wow, sounds like you had many people charmed.”

“Yea, it was a little jarring at times but it all worked out in the end.”

“Oh, how?”

“A giant polyamory.”

“Woah, well yeah I guess man whore fits you.”

“Oh be quiet, it’s not like I’m the one they focus on, they all do like me but they do love each other in that way all the same. It’s not like I’m a anime protagonist who acquired a harem.”

“Junpei, Yukari, Mitsuru, Fuuka, Akihiko, and Ken all agree. Yu is a man whore,” said Aigis, finished with the coffee. She had texted in the Shadow Operative group chat made by Junpei, and asked them the question.

**Shadow Operative Business**

Aigis: I have a question

Mitsuru: Yes?

Yukari: Yea?

Ken: What is it?

Junpei: yea?

Fuuka: got a problem Aigis?

Akihiko: what?

Aigis: Is Yu a man whore?

Yukari: Huh?!

Junpei: What? Lemme search that up

Fuuka: uuhhhh

Akihiko: HAHAHAHAHAh

Mitsuru: -_-

Aigis: he was called that by Margaret, he also is in a relationship with multiple people

Mitsuru: Yes, he is a man whore

Yukari: Yep

Junpei: Gotta agree

Akihiko: Well yea that seems pretty man-whorish

Fuuka: I guess?

Ken: Uhhhh, yea I think Yu would count as a man whore

“Yeesh, excuse me for not wanting to break the hearts of all but one of my closest friends,” said Yu.

“Can’t really blame you kid.”

“Well this coffee was nice, if I stop by Tokyo more I’ll come here for more coffee. See ya!” said Yu.

“Alright, later kid.”

Aigis and Yu left Leblanc, got in a cab, and eventually got back to the apartment. The majority of the conversation was Aigis poking fun at Yu for their adventures killing shadows. 

In Mitsuru’s apartment Akechi was explaining everything he knew about how the metaverse worked and his own experiences.

“So eventually I had to develop my own navigator abilities using Loki, it’s extremely useful. That means I can sense shadows, tell the layouts of palaces, among other things. Loki also gained the ability to summon Sleipnir, a horse, for travel.”

“Are all of those gifts from the Demiurge or were they natural evolutions out of necessity?”

“Well that is debatable, the thieves had that damned cat for a navigator and travel for their entire career so they may not have had the chance to develop those skills.” 

“Hm, while this would make excellent experiments, throwing Persona users into a cognitive realm with no exit to evolve seems inhumane.”

“Fair enough.”

Then Aigis and Yu entered the apartment. Aigis poured Akechi’s blue mountain into a cup, steam radiating off of the surface. Goro drank the coffee while the others got their own drinks. After it was all finished Yu and Goro left to meet up with the rest of the gang. 

In the end, embezzlement plots and Shido’s spies were found in the facilities and got rid of. The gang all got on a train ride to Inaba on March 21st, which was mostly peaceful. Little did Akechi know that Akira was in Inaba at home, peacefully playing with Morgana.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please give me criticism, ideas, or tell me if I forgot to tag something please


	9. Tokyo Adventures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok I have a decent plan on what I want to do after this chapter
> 
> I want the main place to be Inaba for a while. The next chapters will be in a nebulous time period after March 23rd and April 20th. 
> 
> The next chapters will be Akira's return and school like and Akechi fluff with the IT

Funnily enough, Goro might have come up with why he didn’t die on that fateful day in the boiler room. He remembered falling asleep, but then remembers waking up a day later. It seems like when he died he slowly was lost in the public eye, no mentions of him ever in the media.

The reason for this might be that the public recognition he had allowed him to come back, but he died in the eyes of the public as a result. As such the result was he basically had a failsafe back then.

Funnily enough, if this was the case it seems that he was erased in more ways than one. Any searches of his name were met with nothing, all traces of him on the internet were gone, erased. It seems either Oracle of ‘Lucia’ has erased his existence, or dying in the public eye literally means that the general public does not have any more records of him. 

Another part of his theory is that only shadows that were under Demiurge's control had Goro erased from their minds. That would mean all Persona users were essentially immune to the mind wipe. That would explain why the thieves and the Investigation Team remembered him. 

This is all a theory though, so he thinks to mention this to Mitsuru whenever they will first meet.

Those were some of the thoughts Goro kept in his head as he walked around Tokyo with Aigis and Yu on the 20th. Yu was talking to Aigis about their newest assignment, which was to sweep Kirijo facilities for any marks the conspiracy left behind. 

Yu and Aigis were talking about possible remnants of the conspiracy or spies still in the company while Goro gave his opinion sometimes about the situation. Fortunately the group understood his adamance about keeping his state of living secret, so ‘Lucia’ is keeping tabs on security on him. 

Fortunately he stopped doubting her skill when she began to tell him all of his passwords, all of them. 

**At Fuuka**

Fuuka was doing security for Akechi while he was in Tokyo. 

Fuuka honestly didn’t know what to think of the ace detective. On one hand he was the black mask, responsible for hundreds of deaths. On another hand he was literally made to be doomed. All of the events that led to him killing were handcrafted by a malevolent god that wanted to rig a game.

By the time he was met by the thieves he was already twisted by years of hatred and manipulation from Shido. The thieves that Akechi had talked about sounded interesting, particularly this Oracle person. Another master hacker? It would be nice to have someone else to do this sort of stuff with.

**In Tokyo**

The trio were walking around to various Kirijo facilities for a run down of their importance and suspicions they held on spies implanted in them. Goro’s role in the conversation was relegated to giving his own information and theories. 

When they were done early in the morning Yu sighed in his signature carefree fashion and asked Aigis something.

“Hey Aigis, wanna get a drink at your place? Been a long time since we saw each other,” asked Yu.

“Yu, it has been a month since we’ve seen each other, we were partners for the last half of the time we spent destroying the Demiurge’s distractions,” said Aigis.

“Uh, I want to strengthen my bond with you?”

“Fine, but we will be using Mitsuru’s apartment, she has some moderately cheap alcohol for my discretion. Also no serving for Akechi-kun.”

“Great!” said Yu. He always enjoyed Aigis’s company. Life and death situations were always great bonding moments but Aigis was usually out of reach in Tokyo. That meant that those small relaxing moments they could have were to be valued.

“Yu, are you an alcoholic?” poked Akechi. He knew that Yu never really drank that much, only when out with friends. His hangouts are surprisingly sparse as his friends have many things to attend to in their lives.

 **At Mitsuru’s**

Aigis was making some cocktails while talking with Yu and Akechi.

“So Akechi-kun, how are you getting used to your new life?” asked Aigis.

“Pretty used to it, deal with Yu’s random absurdities, hang out with friends, solve cases,” said Akechi.

“I remember one time when we were hunting down an angel, he wanted to tear off it’s wings to fly,” said Aigis, chuckling. Aigis handed a cocktail to Yu and a coffee to Goro.

“Would have worked-” Yu was interrupted by Akechi.

“Blegh, ok could I make a request?” said Akechi, after dumping his coffee.

“Yes?” asked Aigis.

“Could I get a blue mountain from Leblanc, it’s in Yongen Jaya.”

“Ok, I’ll go,” said Aigis.

Then the door opened, revealing Mitsuru Kirijo in a business suit, looking extremely tired.

“Hello Mitsuru-san,” said Aigis.

“You two are going out?” asked Mitsuru.

“She’s getting coffee,” said Yu.

“Alright, Yu, you can go with Aigis. I’ll talk with Akechi-kun here,” said Mitsuru.

“Alright,” said Goro.

Aigis and Yu left the apartment to take a cab to Leblanc. The ride was mostly idle talk about what both of them were doing and funny stories. 

“How is Labrys doing?”

“Oh Labrys? She and Teddie are great together, last thing I checked was that the two created some sort of duo attack,” said Yu.

“Ah, good. It is nice to know my big sister is doing well.”

“What about you? Got any closer to finding Minato?” asked Yu. Yu remembered all of what happened with Rei and Zen, but chose to keep it secret until Minato came. Minato still owes him a wedding. Well that might be something to discuss later as he knows Minato had a romantic relationship with Aigis.

“No, we have no contact with Elizabeth so we cannot tell if there is any news.”

“Any news on Sho?” 

“No, he has been missing for years now. There are no signs he exists anymore. He left no trail.”

“Surprising, he’s not exactly subtle but he might turn up eventually.”

“How is Margaret?”

“Still sending me Jojo memes. So she is good. It appears she has recovered along with Igor and Theo from the Demiurge’s attack.”

“Ah, good.”

The cab stopped, and they arrived in Yongen Jaya at 10 AM nearby Leblanc. They got out, paid the cab driver, and walked to Leblanc.

**Leblanc**

Sojiro has seen his fair share of weird customers. But a foreign looking teenage girl wearing a professional’s suit with a young man with a grey and black suit may top it all. He’s seen enough government officials to know how they carry themselves and these people carry themselves like seasoned professionals.

“What do you want?” asked Sojiro. 

“Could I get anything that is stupidly bitter?” asked Yu.

“Alright black coffee for you, do you want anything miss?”

“I’d like a blue mountain sir,” said Aigis.

“Alright,” Sojiro got to work on the odd duo’s coffee. 

“Anyways, Aigis, Margaret once did this joke where she made an Ardha do the barrage punch thing from Jojo.”

“Ah, speaking of Margaret. When I asked Yosuke of a joke he told me to ask you, so why did she call you a ‘man whore?’”

In response to that Sojiro chuckled a bit. These kids may look like professionals, but they are still kids.

**In Futaba’s Room**

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA” laughed Futaba. She was laughing at the situation she was hearing, in fact she recorded it and was saving it for chuckles. 

**In Leblanc**

“Uhhh, ok that requires context. Ok now that I think about it the context is not good. In the school festival Margaret had a fortune telling booth. She told Nanako that I was a man-whore. Maybe it was because most of the people I know had some sort of crush on me in high school?” said Yu, a little worried. The team called him that a lot when it suited them or when it was funny. 

“Ah, that makes sense.” said Aigis.

“Here’s your coffee kids,” said Sojiro, giving them two cups.

“Thank you eh-” 

“Sojiro Sakura, call me boss,” said Sojiro, interrupting Yu.

“Thank you ‘boss’” said Aigis, sipping the coffee slowly. The coffee was slowly going to a heated containment unit in her body so she could save it for Akechi. 

Sojiro saw no other customers, so he decided to get some coffee for himself and talk to his new customers. 

“So you were a charmer in school? I was quite a ladies man myself. Hooo boy,” started Sojiro.

**In Futaba’s Room**

“Whoa dad! What the heck!” said Futaba, a little grossed out.

**Leblanc**

“I was less of one on purpose and more of an accidental one. And less of a ladies man and more of a everyone's man” said Yu, sighing at some of his friend’s blatant crushes. Luckily he got the option of one giant polyamory with his closest friends.

“Wow, sounds like you had many people charmed.”

“Yea, it was a little jarring at times but it all worked out in the end.”

“Oh, how?”

“A giant polyamory.”

“Woah, well yeah I guess man whore fits you.”

“Oh be quiet, it’s not like I’m the one they focus on, they all do like me but they do love each other in that way all the same. It’s not like I’m a anime protagonist who acquired a harem.”

“Junpei, Yukari, Mitsuru, Fuuka, Akihiko, and Ken all agree. Yu is a man whore,” said Aigis, finished with the coffee. She had texted in the Shadow Operative group chat made by Junpei, and asked them the question.

**Shadow Operative Business**

Aigis: I have a question

Mitsuru: Yes?

Yukari: Yea?

Ken: What is it?

Junpei: yea?

Fuuka: got a problem Aigis?

Akihiko: what?

Aigis: Is Yu a man whore?

Yukari: Huh?!

Junpei: What? Lemme search that up

Fuuka: uuhhhh

Akihiko: HAHAHAHAHAh

Mitsuru: -_-

Aigis: he was called that by Margaret, he also is in a relationship with multiple people

Mitsuru: Yes, he is a man whore

Yukari: Yep

Junpei: Gotta agree

Akihiko: Well yea that seems pretty man-whorish

Fuuka: I guess?

Ken: Uhhhh, yea I think Yu would count as a man whore

“Yeesh, excuse me for not wanting to break the hearts of all but one of my closest friends,” said Yu.

“Can’t really blame you kid.”

“Well this coffee was nice, if I stop by Tokyo more I’ll come here for more coffee. See ya!” said Yu.

“Alright, later kid.”

Aigis and Yu left Leblanc, got in a cab, and eventually got back to the apartment. The majority of the conversation was Aigis poking fun at Yu for their adventures killing shadows. 

In Mitsuru’s apartment Akechi was explaining everything he knew about how the metaverse worked and his own experiences.

“So eventually I had to develop my own navigator abilities using Loki, it’s extremely useful. That means I can sense shadows, tell the layouts of palaces, among other things. Loki also gained the ability to summon Sleipnir, a horse, for travel.”

“Are all of those gifts from the Demiurge or were they natural evolutions out of necessity?”

“Well that is debatable, the thieves had that damned cat for a navigator and travel for their entire career so they may not have had the chance to develop those skills.” 

“Hm, while this would make excellent experiments, throwing Persona users into a cognitive realm with no exit to evolve seems inhumane.”

“Fair enough.”

Then Aigis and Yu entered the apartment. Aigis poured Akechi’s blue mountain into a cup, steam radiating off of the surface. Goro drank the coffee while the others got their own drinks. After it was all finished Yu and Goro left to meet up with the rest of the gang. 

In the end, embezzlement plots and Shido’s spies were found in the facilities and got rid of. The gang all got on a train ride to Inaba on March 21st, which was mostly peaceful. Little did Akechi know that Akira was in Inaba at home, peacefully playing with Morgana.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please give me criticism, ideas, or tell me if I forgot to tag something please


	10. The Trickster's Return to the Land of Cleared Fog

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A shorty! It's just about Akira's home life before Shido happened and his parents and the such.(edited to add a lil more)

Akira’s life before becoming a phantom thief was to say the least, torturous. His parents were always strict. When he did anything besides ‘his best’ he would be strictly punished. Nothing physical, only mental. 

Their punishments were always continuous criticism and insults being thrown at his face along with being grounded. They would accost him for not trying and telling him he was born lucky and they would ruin their name if he didn’t keep his grades up. He would be isolated from the few friends he had and by middle school he didn’t have any. His room was stationed so he always watched the other kids play outside when he was grounded.

His mom and dad were married out of convenience, the feelings they gave off were more akin to business partners than spouses. Akria sometimes wondered if their families had them married for business reasons. 

They were cold and distant. His mom would put up a mask of caring, being polite enough. She would berate him whenever he did anything wrong or step out of line. His father didn’t bother, his responses to questions were terse or refusal to answer. He didn’t care about Akira as long as he didn’t screw up their reputation in the small town or their workplace. 

His parents were traditional, so when he stepped out of line and got sued they happily took the ‘upstanding politician’s (My ass)’ side and shipped him off to be whipped into shape. Unluckily for them Akira got actual friends, a better dad, and an actual home.

His days in Yasogami High before the arrest were weird. His classmates would make efforts to try and befriend him when he pushed them away. Eventually they understood he wanted to be left alone and he developed the reputation of the anti-social one. 

When he got arrested he had heard whispers about him. Usually about how the ‘quiet ones always snap,’ or ‘I knew he was a freak.’ Although he never felt a thing about those murmurs, back then he was just numb.

His last day in Shujin was odd to say the least. At least he had one reassurance. Even if the general public were distorted there were always people, even if they cannot fight, who were good. He actually ended up talking to the saint who sat behind him and bought him ramen for after school.

It turned out the guy never ratted him out for his cat because Akira seemed like a good dude and he didn’t want to make him give up his cat. It also turns out he had guesses that they were the Phantom Thieves the entire time but rooted for them the entire time.

That was a comforting reminder that there were still people who silently assisted him and there were good people in the general public. 

When his train arrived in Inaba, Akira felt disappointed. Tokyo was grander, large buildings, people everywhere, and the city was bustling with life. Inaba was peaceful. The streets didn’t have cars and barely had people. 

The shopping district was mildly interesting, a blacksmith's shop peaked his interest. Junes was the largest shop there, a part of the town that was welcomed and practically the only thing that seemed relatively modern. 

Junes was nice, a little familiar to Akira. He remembered a funny mascot that reminded him of a hyperactive child. Junes always had a small crowd of people going about their groceries. 

So far the town was just another thing on the map, it being nothing special. The most exciting thing was the Inaba Fog Murders a couple years ago. 

When he got to his ‘home’ he was greeted with the normal greeting, that is to say he wasn’t greeted. There was a note on the table with a uniform and some other school supplies saying he starts school next month and that his parents were going on a business trip. That was standard. So he got out Morgana into his room while he put back his stuff.

“Woah, this is your home?”

“More like my sperm donor’s and sperm holder’s storage unit.”

“Yeesh, how bad were your parents?”

“There’s a reason why I never talk about my life here.”

“Ok I won’t pry, but anyways how are you getting used to your home for the next year?” 

“Well I’m not being harassed so I’m fine.”

By the time he finished unpacking it was 1 pm and he was bored so he got open his phone and started to text his friends.

**StealUrHeart**

Akira: I have arrived at Inaba

Ryuji: Gj bro, how's it been so far?

Ann: How is it?

Akira: It’s boring asf

Futaba: I did some checking on his town, and yea it is really boring

Akira: the closest thing we have to excitement is the local celebrity that acts as the Junes mascot

Ryuji: Junes has a mascot?

Ann: It did?

Futaba: Did a search, it doesn’t

Akira: Yea it does! Around here it’s this guy in a cartoon bear suit

Futaba: No results

Ann: Yea I think we would know

Ryuji: Yea no

Akira: Bruh he’s been here for like 5 years

Ann: don’t remember they had a mascot

Akira: He’s like a super cute guy underneath the suit?

Ryuji: How do you know this much about him?

Akira: I, uh. May have had a little tiny innocent childhood crush on the guy

Ryuji: HAHAHAHAH

Ann: SKFDJFK 

Futaba: (dies of laughter)

Akira: Shuddup! I saw him crossdressing 1 time and I may have gotten a crush!

Futaba: (dies) 

Ann: Ok, ok. What about you send us a picture of the guy?

Akira: Sure

Ryuji: neat

Akira: Ryuji you just need fap material don’t you

Ann: SKFKSDK

Futaba:(dies)

Ryuji: No! Shuddup!

Akira smiled and closed his phone. He spent the rest of the day buying materials for curry from Junes (and to check where Teddie is to no avail). He made some curry for himself and ended up going to sleep with Morgana in his arms.

**The Next Day**

Akria got out of his house the next day with loads of free time. Morgana wanted to stay to make himself at home and scout out the place so Akiraa had the day to himself. So at noon he walked all the way to Junes to get the promised pictures and to see what he could buy there. 

His walk to Junes was peaceful and when he arrived at Junes he decided to look for the bear in question. He found Teddie in his mascot costume sweeping the halls. It always was odd how the eyes seemed real and moving, the mouth animated like it was real, among other things. It seemed like Teddie was lifelike.

Akira felt something nostalgic with Teddie though. He vaguely remembers memories of Teddie, with him and the thieves in some strange jungle. He could see vague shapes and remember vague voices, although nothing concrete came to mind. This feeling of nostalgia was reminiscent of when Hikari presented her movie in that film festival. 

Odd, that’s the only thing to describe this. 

He brushes the suspicion off and decides to go to Tatsumi Textiles. A couple years before his arrest he remembered it was run by a sweet old woman and her son. He always admired his handiwork. 

Meeting Kanji again was nice. Kanji was calming, quiet, fully absorbed in his work. Although he got more feelings of nostalgia from Kanji, just more oddities.

He saw a cop he remembered was Chie Satonaka who gave off the same feeling. He met the Junes manager who made him feel nostalgic. Numerous people around town felt familiar. It was just off the tip of his tongue.


	11. Akechi Learns Haiku with Marie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning: I suck at writing haiku

Akechi learns poetry

Akechi’s day started normal enough. He got up, dressed, and readied himself for a day of doing work. He did some online courses for a school supplement. What he didn’t expect was Marie walking into the living room.

“Looking for Yu?”

“Yep.”

“Sorry, he’s on a coffee date with Margaret.”

“Oh that stupidjerkhedefinitelyletshersteponhimhromhdf.”

“Are you having an aneurysm? Or is this normal?”

“This is normal, in fact the others laugh at this.”

“Don’t worry, first he would never abandon your merry team, second he hasn’t seen her in two years. Plus if you're asking I’m pretty sure she’s stepped on him before.”

“Really?”

“It’s the look in their eyes. I can see the intimacy.”

“Now that I think about it he talked about her summoning him in the velvet room during his sleep to continue their ‘sinning’ a couple years ago.”

“Well now that we have talked about his numerous love interests and further cemented his role as a man-whore. Got any other reason to be here?”

“Not really. I got time so what are you doing?”

“Boring online school work, honestly when you fight mythological demons from another world this is calm but boring.”

“So, wanna learn haiku? I learned recently and it’s just another form of poetry.”

“Learning haiku is asinine and stupid. Only the pretentious actually bother with this.”

“That’s rich coming from you.”

“Touche”

Akechi watched the girl look through her bag and found a piece of paper with some writings on it. He listened to Marie narrate her haiku. It wasn’t that bad.

“Their love’s eternal/Even if one is dead and/the other alive.”

“Wow, beautiful. Now that would be wonderful. But you are describing your love life. Technically you are just dating a person who is spiritually your ‘husband’”

“Shut up! He’s nice!”

“All wild cards are. But anyways, I could probably come up with something.”

Goro racked his mind, Loki just responded that he would rather fuck another horse than do this. Robin is more familiar with english poems, and Hereward doesn’t care. He finally comes up with something.

“Damned thief of hearts/He’s attic trash that I love/He thinks me dead now.”

“Yeesh, that’s a little sad, good though.”

“Thanks. I guess.” 

“So what are your feelings about this Joker dude? It sounds like you have complicated feelings.”

“He’s a fool who’s incessant about liking me even though I tried to shoot him three times.”

“Well that’s the thing about fools, they never give up. Yu taking you in is an example.”

“Well on the other hand Joker’s intriguing, cocky, and intelligent. Honestly if anything I was jealous of him for a while instead of hate. He was given friends, practically a living wikipedia of metaverse knowledge, the power of the Wild Card, among other things.”

“You see yourself in him so much and see how much better he turned out and that makes you angry?”

“Yes.” 

“Well that isn’t uncommon. Yosuke was jealous of Yu for awhile and I’m pretty sure we are all jealous of someone for something they have.”

“Well humans are jealous a lot.”

“Yes they are.”

“Were you envious of other people?”

“Well sure, sometimes I would yearn for a person to care for or some stuff like that when I didn’t have my memories. Sometimes before and after I was a bit jealous of the other girls when they got Yu’s attention. Nowadays I’m not envious much, as we all know Yu is happy to share with anyone he truly cares about. Honestly even I don’t know how many people he loves in that way and I don’t care.”

“Ah, nice. Well in my mind when I wasn’t constantly insulting Joker mentally, I was wondering what he saw in me. The broken, thrown away, unstable hitman that caused unknowable grief to so many people. Why did he constantly flirt with me, love me. If he was doing the stuff he did to me to everyone, I probably would be feeling like my blood was vinegar. Probably possessiveness over someone who was never mine.”

“First step to solving your own personal flaws is recognizing them as your flaws.”

“That a general life lesson or experience?”

“Well considering the Team got our personas via accepting their shadows, it’s experience.”

“Neat.”

“Well, got another Haiku in store?”

“I got one. Feelings of envy/Blooming into bitterness/Explode into hate.”

“Nice!”

“You got another?”

“Moon child Kaguya/As a gift for a Trickster/Very powerful.”

“Wait. It was you who gave him Kaguya? He fucking used shining arrows to see how much damage he could do at once! He tried one shotting the reaper! Luckily he failed and had to kill it normally.”

“Yep! I do know he is fated to meet you here somehow. I can do a multitude of things in my mind. Your meet is related to the Universe arcana, Moon arcana, and fool arcana.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“Hell if I know.”

“Vague fortune teller/Frustrating as burning hell/It is vague bullshit.”

“Fool who sees Aeon/Sees Aeon trip and he laughs/Fool is distracted.”

“Ok saying things in haiku is for Fox, and I’m going to refrain from being like him for now.”

“Whatever you say Sketchy ‘Kechi.”

“Why are you calling me that? Call me anything else!”

“Adachi 2.0”

“I’ll take the previous name.”

The two did some haikus and Marie left to get some coffee in the refrigerator for herself. Yu arrived later that day to some playful scolding from Marie.


	12. Cooking With Yukiko

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yukiko would definitely get lessons from Yu

When asked about mystery food x, the only thing he got as a response was Yu looking terrified and answering meekly. Fortunately the number of mystery food x makers have been cut down by half, Fuuka learning how to make edible food years ago and Yukiko eventually taking lessons from Yu. 

Akechi never really cooked for himself. He ate convenience store meals in his practically empty apartment. It was always empty and clean. He never really got things to fill it with, he was busy being a fool enamored with impressing his shitstain of a sperm donor.

He now does have a reason to cook for himself. Mostly because after eating Leblanc’s curry convenience store meals taste like styrofoam coated with shit. 

So he decided to ask Yukiko if she could teach him how to cook.

“Sure Goro-kun!”

After a couple days of planning they were in the kitchen.

“So Goro-kun, what do you want to cook?”

“Hmm, I would love to know how to make pancakes.”

“Sure! Ok so get flour, baking powder, salt, milk, an egg, a bowl, and a non-stick pan.”

Akechi did as he was told and got all the ingredients and tools from various cabinets in Yu’s kitchen. He arranged them on the countertop.

“Ok now mix 120 grams of flour, 1 ½ tablespoons of baking powder, and a pinch of salt together until they are fully mixed.”

Akechi pours the ingredients into the bowl, grabs a whisk and mixes the dry ingredients slow enough so they don’t spray. When they look homogenous he looks at Yukiko.

“Add the milk and mix slowly, leave lumps. It’ll end up fluffier that way.”

Akechi poured the milk into the fry ingredients and slowly mixed it with the whisk, leaving tons of lumps.

“Seperate the egg, place the yolk in the batter and the white in another bowl.”

Akechi managed to separate the egg with a strainer and a lot of frustration. He slowly mixes the yolk into the batter until homogenous while leaving the white in another bowl.

“Beat the eggs until stiff and then fold it into the batter.”

Akechi tried using his whisk in numerous ways to beat the white. Then with the help of Yukiko he got an egg beater and beat the egg till it turned stiff. He folded the white into the pancake batter and it looked ready enough to cook.

All the while Yukiko had preheated the pan. 

“Ok, so use a ladle to put some batter onto the pan to make the pancakes.”

In the end Akechi’s pancakes were a little burnt but overall pretty good and fluffy. Akechi put syrup and butter on his while Yukiko put chocolate syrup on hers.

“I’ll never get why you bother to put chocolate syrup on pancakes.” said Akechi.

“It’s sweet isn’t it? I don’t see why not.”

“Maple syrup is far superior.”

“Ok basic bitch.”

“You people find odd ways to insult me. Also chocolate syrup sucks, if you really want chocolate use nutella.”

“Hmm, honestly it just depends on what I find first. Both are good.”

A couple minutes of eating pancakes later, Akechi asked a question.

“What was mystery food x?”

“Oh! Well imagine curry, but it’s slimy, spicy, sweet, salty, bitter, and hard at the same time.”

“Sounds like poison.”

“It is.”

“When asked about it, Yu seemed terrified.”

“Oh, when he ate a spoonful of mystery food x and passed out for a couple of minutes.”

“Sounds terrifying.”

“It was! I remember one time during our adventures he coated his blade with mystery food x. It somehow was more effective.”

“That sounds inhumane. Also absurd.”

“Yep.”


	13. Reading with Naoto and Yosuke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reading!
> 
> Anyways the next few chapters will just be shorties of Akechi hanging out with the gang!

Akechi had solidified a routine where he would read books with Naoto and Yosuke. They both surprisingly both liked detective novels.

Yosuke is surprisingly deductive and thoroughly enjoys the mystery novels that Naoto reads. Naoto just enjoys the novels as they inspired her to become a detective. 

They were reading a mystery called ‘Murder in the Eternal Midnight,’ where a murder occurs in a large commerical submarine heading around the ocean for the first time. They were reading the first chapters at this time.

‘And so a figure slipped into Mr. Hudson’s room with a knife in hand. They loomed over the slumbering body of John Hudson and uttered a few words.

“Checkmate Mr. Hudson.”’

It seems the murder mystery had less of a main character and had all of the cast as the protagonists.

The main cast and suspects were five people. 

There was Jacob Lesorn, an investor who was given the first ticket to the Eternal Midnight as a gift for holding stocks in the company. 

There was Elizabeth Artein, a famous chess player who was given a ticket for publicity.

There was Abraham Thompson, the janitor of the entire submarine.

Finally, there was Victoria Hudson, a famous actress and wife of Mr. Hudson.

Mr. Hudson, the victim, was the CEO of the company who made the submarine.

The following morning the crew gathered round and the captain established order, and got alibis and testimonies from people. They gathered all the facts and singled out the cast as the only people who could have done it. 

None of them had a solid alibi and all of them had an opportunity to kill Mr. Hudson.

The three readers finished reading that part and began to talk.

“Well I’ll be honest, this sounds a little interesting. A couple of problems is that there will be a lack of capability to get actual evidence,” said Yosuke.

“Agreed, even makeshift tools to gather evidence could have worked but honestly we’ll have to see how it goes,” said Naoto.

“Hmm, will the author pull an obvious move and make someone other than the main four the culprit?” asked Akechi.

“That seems likely, but we will have to get deeper into the story to tell,” said Naoto.

Throughout the mystery there were multiple clues pointing towards each of the suspects. There were broom hairs and dust, perfume, a button from Jacob’s shirt, and a chess piece in Mr. Hudson’s room.

Various witnesses pointed at each of the suspects as well.

There were subtle hints about Abraham’s sociopathic tendencies and emotional abuse of Victoria. There were paranoid tendencies from Elizabeth and Jacob did greedy things subtly. 

Then the book took a turn near the end, it became a choose your own adventure book. It asked the reader who they think is the killer and the book would show the consequences of accusing them. 

Apparently in the end, all answers were correct. Jacob killed Mr. Hudson because he wanted to take his shares in the company. Elizabeth killed Mr. Hudson because she was being stalked and harassed by him for years. Abraham killed Mr. Hudson because he was a sociopath who became bored in life and wanted to tear down the ‘bigwigs’. Victoria killed Mr. Hudson because Mr. Hudson was emotionally abusing and blackmailing her.

“Well, that was certainly a twist,” said Akechi.

“Yea! Well it seems like all answers were correct,” said Yosuke.

“Hmm, it seems they have purposely made the story vague so you can fill in the blank with your own answer,” said Naoto.

“Or the author got really lazy and decided to make the reader come up with an interesting plot,” said Goro.

“Or maybe this symbolizes how anyone can be a killer in the right circumstances?” asked Yosuke.

“Perhaps the submarine symbolizes how far the murderer had gone to achieve their own goals?” said Naoto.

“Or maybe the author is a hack and we are making them seem smart so we don’t have to admit we were wasting our time,” said Akechi.

“Possible, but even accidental metaphors and symbolism are good,” said Yosuke.

“Perhaps,” said Akechi.

“Maybe the cameras going haywire and the lights being off symbolizes how we put a blanket over the root of crimes and only seek to punish criminals like they are dogs to be put down,” said Naoto.

“Ok maybe that’s a little far, but seems sound,” said Yosuke.

“Perhaps the punishment of being fed to the sharks symbolizes how after conviction we are left to fend for ourselves in a world that wants us dead,” said Akechi.

“Maybe the fact that the other evidence was shrugged off symbolizes the fact that the legal system always goes for easy convictions instead of actually searching for the truth?” said naoto.

“Maybe the red eyes and the towering stature of the crowd symbolizes how the murderer saw the people as something to be feared, and how mob mentality can make people as bad as murderers,” said Yosuke.

“Maybe the flushing of the toilet symbolizes how society likes to throw away what they deem bad for society,” said Akechi.

“Yes, and the alcohol symbolizes how people seek any way to escape their sorrows easily even if it means harm to themselves,” said Naoto.

“I’m going to assume you guys are being sarcastic,” said Yosuke.

“No we’re being totally serious. Also the tophat Mr. Hudson wears symbolizes his artificial need to appear taller, or more powerful, than he actually is,” chuckled Naoto.

“Alright, alright. Anyways these types of novels are kinda weird. If all of them are the killer then it’s kinda hard to single one of them out,” said Yosuke.

“Well it lets morons who read this feel smart for guessing who the killer was,” said Akechi.

“Well that is true, but it’s fine, it’s just that we were the wrong types of readers for this book,” said Naoto.

“True enough,” said Akechi.


	14. Blacksmithing with Teddie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Honestly it was just a little chapter about Teddie having a job at Daidara's, it exploded from there.
> 
> Looking at Persona 4 materials its amazing to see how they can be used. I just gave Akechi some gear based off of those

Akechi always wondered what Teddie did for a living. The living cartoon probably didn’t get paid much for being a mascot and it seems needy at times. What could Teddie possibly do to earn money? The answer surprised Akechi somewhat.

On a day like no other, Akechi decided to look into Daidara’s to see what they had that day. He saw Teddie in blacksmith’s attire shaping a piece of metal.

“Teddie?”

“Oh Akechi-baby! Hold one sec.”

Teddie was shaping the metal to be the shape of a sickle. A couple minutes of constantly using the hammer to tinker the shape exactly right and Teddie let his attention.

“So what are you doing here Teddie?” asked Akechi

“Well I work at Daidara’s Akechi-baby! I gotta bear-n yen somehow!” 

“He hired you?”

“Yep! He lets me use his forge and sell stuff in his shop if I give him half my profit and help him make stuff!”

“Really? What do you make?”

“Sunglasses, wood statues, tools, armor, jewelry, all that stuff!”

“Can I see you do that?”

“Sure Akechi-baby!”

Teddie got a wood block and split it in half. He slowly made the wood into a handle for the sickle and sharpened the sickle after it had a handle put on it. In the end the sickle turned out good, Teddie tried cutting some paper with it and it cut the paper clean.

“Do you get customers a lot?”

“Well when the farmers here lose or break their sickles they come here and buy them! It’s honest work!”

“Do people buy the other things you sell?”

“Oh yea! The locals around here just come around whenever they need glasses, for some reason they keep on saying my glasses work beary well and help their eyesight or whatever! I don’t see fog around here anymore!”

“Where do you get the lenses?”

“Oh! I just grab whatever glass or stuff the shadows dropped! They drop these types of glass that makes it easier to see through the fog!”

“Nevermind.”

“I’m a master artisan! I can make a lot of things!”

“Oh really?” 

“Yes really! I found some cool looking rocks a couple days ago, now look at this!” Teddie showed a metal necklace with the rock taking the place as a sort of gemstone while half encased in metal. 

“Impressive, does anyone buy your stuff?” 

“Yep! Some high schoolers buy my things on occasion and I have gotten some local news coverage!”

“Was it a lawsuit for sexual harassment?”

“No! It was just a highlight about my absolutely bearific wares!”

“Alright. What do you even use as materials anyways?”

“Oh, I just wander around town and anything I find that is metal I grab and use it here! I made a railway spike into a knife the other day! I also made a shield out of a garbage can top I found in the streets!”

“That sounds like it breaks at least one law but ok.”

“Well I haven’t been arrested yet!” 

“Well I’m a cop.”

“You wouldn’t arrest me would you officer?”

“Ehhhhhhhh I’m debating it in my head.”

“Pleaseeee,” Teddie said. His eyes practically sparkled.

“Fine, can I get a better saber?”

“Sure Akechi-baby!”

Teddie grabbed Akechi’s old saber and put it somewhere else. He got damascus steel and heated it in the forge. After it was sufficiently heated he got a hammer and started to hit the bar on the anvil. After hitting the metal for a couple of minutes it vaguely looked like a saber.

He began to shape the bottom part to fit a premade handle and after that he started to sharpen the blade with a grinder. After it was sufficiently sharpened and it seemed like a normal saber. 

Teddie looked into his bag and found a piece of steel that looked like it was emanating the souls of the damned and a piece of steel that looked molten.

“Teddie, I have Loki as a persona and I know what damascus steel is, how the literal hell do you have that and whatever the hell that is?”

“We use materials we find in the TV world to forge weapons! It’s beary amazing!” explained Teddie.

“Hmm, to think that the cognitive realm can produce metals where the methods of making it were long since forgotten.” 

Teddie melted the soul death steel and flame steel together. When it was in a liquid form it appeared to merge slowly. The deathly aura of the soul death steel mixing with the flaming fury of the flame steel to become a metal that seemed like a ghostly rage.

Teddie grabbed the saber and dipped it into the molten metals. It seemed to absorb the metals, slowly becoming one with each other. The saber was turning more red, hotter while seething with deathly energy.

In the end the handle became a dark purple and black wood. The blade appeared molten while still solid and it was inscribed with pictures of specters in agony.

“What the fuck was that? Did it just absorb-?”

“Don’t sweat it Akechi-baby! We got used to it, Daidara did. So anyways do you want to name your weapon?”

“Hmm, I know what to name it, and this fits. Laevatein, the molten blade of Loki.”

‘A fitting blade for a trickster such as us!’ said Loki.

‘Ah, the bear's craftsmanship is remarkable indeed. Maybe we can ask him to create a bow Hereward?’ asked Robin Hood. 

‘Perhaps, although I think the boy will enjoy a laser gun more. Perhaps a crossbow will do better,’ said Hereward.

‘Or maybe an accessory for each of us!’ said Robin Hood.

“Hey Teddie?”

“Yea Akechi-baby?’

“Could I get an accessory for Hereward and Robin Hood? They’re incessant on getting something since Loki did,” said Akechi.

‘You make us sound needy!’ said Robin Hood.

‘To be fair, you kind of are,’ said Hereward.

“Sure Akechi-baby!” said Teddie. He was thinking then suddenly got an idea. He got a white metal watch and emptied the clockwork parts. He did some tinkering with a lens that seemed to be extremely strong and fitted it into a metal frame. Teddie did some work with springs and in the end he made a special watch.

“Ok Akechi-baby! This is some cool stuff, this watch can be used as a scope!” Teddie said. 

He displayed it to Akechi by pressing a button on the watch, flinging out what was supposed to be the clock part and instead revealed it to be a gun sight. The lens was incredibly strong and surprisingly could be adjusted with a crank on the side somehow. The sight could be rotated with another crank as well. When the sight was up where it used to be sat Robin Hood’s insignia. 

“That is extremely well made Teddie. That is amazing, credit where credit is due. I'll name it, Sharpshooters Eye”

“Don’t sweat it! I still got one more thing to make!”

Teddie got to work and somehow made a metal gauntlet with bloody thorns and soul death metal. He grabbed a mysterious eye that glowed and put it in the palm of the gauntlet.

“Ok Akechi-baby, if this works how I think it works, then this gauntlet can let you shoot lasers at will out of the palm. Combine this with Sharpshooters Eye to have an accurate laser gun!”

“Wow. I’ll name it Hereward’s Bow,” said Goro.

‘You do know I never used bows right? I primarily used swords.’ said Hereward.

‘Eh it works, your Persona form uses a bow and that’s all that matters,’ said Loki.

‘These are extraordinary gifts, please thank Teddie,’ said Robin Hood.

“Thank you Teddie for the gifts,” said Akechi.

“Don’t sweat it! We need our agents to have the best gear after all!”


	15. Akechi Spars with Labrys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thought his gear was OP? Watch him get fucked up by a giant bull right now!

After getting the new gear from Teddie, Akechi decided to test it out. Labrys just so happened to be available for sparring. They were in a grassy plain inside the ironically named Midnight Channel.

“Ooh Ted gave ya new gear?” asked Labrys.

“Yes, it’s quality is extremely good, it also looks nice paired with my outfit,” said Akechi.

“He couldn’t do much to improve my axe, so he just gave me some nice hair charms!” said Labrys, pointing to a ribbon keeping her ponytail together that was embroidered.

“Nice, so anyways he gave me a gauntlet that can shoot lasers, a watch that can be used as a scope, and a sword that constantly looks molten and feels like the dead.”

“Sounds normal! Let’s get fighting!” said Labrys, spinning her axe and getting into battle stance.

“Alright! No holding back!” yelled Akechi, swiftly appearing in his Dark Prince outfit.

Akechi started by creating distance by backing up while shooting with Hereward’s Bow. Labrys responded by using her axe’s jet propulsion to help her clear the distance.

As Labrys was going to bring her axe down on Akechi, he blocked it with Laevetin with his right hand. He used his other hand to shoot Labrys. Labyrs stumbles back after being hit with the laser, and quickly changes back her axe to become a jetpack.

She flies around and dodges laser fire. The jetpack becomes an axe once again as she drops down with the axe to hit Akechi. Akechi quickly dodges and the axe becomes stuck in the ground for enough time to let Akechi point Laevetin at her.

“Stand down!” said Akechi.

“Alright, alright, I lost. Ya got any tips Akechi?” asked Labrys.

“While you were fast and mobile, I would say your biggest flaw is the slowness of your axe. If I’ll be honest you might want to either create more distance or change how you attack, Also try and use your Persona” said Akechi.

“Ok, let's start round two after we heal,” said Labyrs.

Labrys got some medicine and after she consumed it the damaged parts of her body fixed themselves. 

“Ready?” asked Akechi.

“Yep!”

“Alright, 3. 2. 1. Start!”

Labrys started by unchaining her hand holding onto the axe and trying to hit Akechi. Akechi used Laevetin to block the axe but it hooked onto the saber. Labrys began to reel in the chain quickly.

When it was reeled back Akechi was stumbling due to the imbalance. Labrys summoned Ariande to use her rope to wrap up Akechi and pull him. Akechi managed to cut the rope and began to shoot at Labrys.

Labrys had Ariande to spin her string to block the lasers. Labrys sprinted towards Akechi with her axe in hand. 

When he blocked her lunge he didn’t expect Ariande to be summoned and use her string to wrap his legs and pull him onto his back.

Akechi freed his legs by cutting the string and barely avoided the axe when she swung again. He dodged her axe swings a couple times and cut Ariande’s tries to wrap him. He summons Hereward to use riot gun on her. 

While she is using Ariadne to block the bullets, Akechi lunges at Labrys with Laevetin. She blocks his lunge and responds by using Ariadne to wrap him up completely. He isn’t able to cut himself free this time.

“Alright, I lose. Good job Labrys.”

“Thanks for da advice ‘Kechi!” 

“Incredible use of the string for trying to incapacitate me, as well as blocking my attacks. Also trying to use your chain hand to reel me in was ingenious.”

“Aww ya flatter me Akechi!”

A couple minutes of rest later and they were ready to fight again.

Labrys began by causing spikes made out of Ariande’s string to appear on the ground which caused Akechi to back up. He used his saber to cut the strings and when Labrys sent some saw blades made of string Akechi had to cut them. 

Labrys used her axe to propel herself towards Akechi with the intent to cleave him. Labrys barely missed while Akechi knocked her away with a laser blast. Labrys stumbled and began using Ariande to send buzzsaws towards Akechi more.

Akechi used his saber to cut the saws and send laser fire to Labrys. Labrys used Ariande’s string to create a shield to block the lasers. Akechi lunged while using an eigaon to cause a hole in the shield and stabbed into the created hole.

Labrys dodged Akechi’s attack and hit him with her axe. He stumbled back in pain and used a Rebellion Blade. Labrys tried blocking with Ariande but only blocked a few Rebellion Blades and was hit with most of them. 

While Labrys was distracted Akechi fired lasers at Labrys which all hit. Labrys decided to use Ariande’s string to create multiple spears which she propelled directly at Akechi. Akechi was able to cut a few but was hit multiple times. She used Ariande’s string to create a web behind him which he was trapped on. 

Labrys began to lunge at Akechi but before she could hit him he freed himself and dodged. Labrys’s axe was stuck in the ground and Akechi used a final Rebellion Blade. Labrys was hit by all of the blades and collapsed on the ground due to damages.

“That was close,” said Akechi.

“Ya said it!” said Labrys, using medicine to heal her wounds.

After Labrys and Akechi finished healing herself she remembered the other her within.

“Hey Akechi, wanna fight a giant bull?” 

“What do you mean?”

“I have another person inside of me and they can summon a giant bull!”

“Another, you? Like a split personality that has a Persona?”

“Yep!”

“It’ll be a good challenge.”

Labrys went inside of her head and saw her ‘shadow’ self. 

“Can I fight that dude now? I want to tear him apart!”

“Give him back in one piece though, we still want him alive.”

“Fineeeeeeee! It’s been a while since we had a new fighter!”

Labrys gave up control to her ‘shadow’. The effect was immediate, her eyes became yellow, her smile grew maniacal, and she summoned Asterius.

“That’s a giant bull,” deadpanned Akechi.

“Let’s fight weakling!” yelled ‘shadow’ Labrys.

Labrys let Asterius rise to be up to it’s hip. Asterius opened up a bit in it’s chest and let Labrys step in. Asterius then began to use it’s large hands to try and hit Akechi. Akechi dodged Asterius’s attacks and spammed laser fire which it blocked with its hands.

Asterius sweeped the floor with it’s arms and Akechi jumped to dodge. Asterius shot fireballs through its horns which Akechi had to dodge. When Asterius tried to hit Akechi he dodged and ran up its arms. Asterius flinged Akechi off though.

Asterius opened its mouth and shot a laser towards Akechi. Akechi was hit by it for a second which caused some burns but he reflected it with Laevatein swiftly. Asterius punched the ground but its hand went into a labyrinth. A portal appeared under Akechi where Asterius’s hand grabbed him. 

Akechi used Rebellion Blade on Asterius’s hand to make it flinch enough to let go. Akechi jumped toward Asterius’s head and dodged its attempts to swat him. He is hit by a laser that is shot from Asterius’s mouth and flops onto the ground. He rolls to dodge another slam from Asterius and shoots several lasers towards Asterius. 

The fight continued on with Akechi dodging but then Asterius roared and the ground started to catch on fire. Dark fire hit Akechi and he was thrown into the air where Asterius punched him so hard that it looked like it punched a hole out of the TV and threw Akechi out of it. Outside Akechi flinged out of a TV in Junes and at lightning speed into another one. Akechi appeared back into the TV world, flinged into a tree, and landed with his legs and arms broken.

Akechi was screaming in agony while feeling the pain of his internal bleeding.

Labrys quickly turned normal and rushed over to Akechi.

“Was that too much? I got medicine don’t worry!” Labrys said as she got some medicine, rubbing alcohol, and bandages and applied them to Akechi’s wounds. His wounds seale themselves and his body was rapidly turning back to normal.

After Akechi was fully healed but a little sore he got up, stretched a bit and tiredly said, “Ok, that's enough for today.”

“Alright ‘Kechi!” said Labrys.

“Asterius is extremely powerful though.”

“Well yea! Before I couldn’t control them and letting them do their thing resulted in mass destruction, but they do let me have control when they are done.”

“Hmm, though the force of that punch literally punched me out of the TV world, that is extremely concerning.”

“Yep! It’s just one of my abilities I guess! Maybe it’s because they are my ‘shadow’? Mitsuru couldn’t come up with a good explanation after observing me punch stuff out.”

“It is extremely concerning though that you can do that. I would think that doing that would cause massive destruction in the real world.” 

“Probably!”

“So using Asterius is trading the control you had with Ariande for the power of Asterius. It seems that using Asterius is akin to making yourself go mad with bloodlust. Ariande seems to be exceptional at capturing and grabbing while Asterius seems to be raw maddening power.”

“Yeap! My ‘shadow’ is really eager to fight!”

‘He’s decent! I was overexerting myself to make my power overwhelming! If I was using my normal amount of power he would have defeated me!’ said Shadow Labrys.

“Oh yea, does this other person have a name?”

“Huh, I just call them Shadow me, hey me, do you wanna name?”

‘Hmm, call my Asty or Asterius!’ said Asterius.

“She wants to be called Asty!”

“Does she have a name that doesn’t make me want to rip my own guts to hang myself with them?”

“Asterius!”

“So just call her by her Persona name, that works.”

The duo sat down at a picnic bench that was in the TV world and Akechi ate some sandwiches they left there.

“Heya ‘Kechi?”

“Yes Labrys?” 

“Do you know my past?”

“Not really, I’ve heard of your involvement in the P-1 Grand Climax incident but not much of your actual past.”

“I was a Anti-shadow suppression weapon, they forced me to fight and kill my sisters for some ungodly reason. During that time I made friends with someone else. Eventually I was forced to kill her as well. When the scientists wanted to erase my memories and emotions I fought my way out and was deactivated. I eventually got involved in that P-1 Grand Climax mess and here I am now,” said Labrys.

“That sounds horrible. Being forced to kill your family when you didn’t know what that meant, then learning to care for people but being forced to kill them. As you know I was tricked to kill Wakaba Isshiki and forced to kill everyone after that. I have a question, do you ever feel guilty over killing your sisters?”

“Well, of course. I killed sentient beings that could’ve lived a normalish life. I took away all their opportunities. The thing is I was barely sentient myself back then. I only learned to care for people when I met my friend and learned to care for them. When I killed her I just began to snap. I cried and when the researchers were gonna take my memories of her away from me I fully snapped, running away. Fortunately I was only shut down and I got betta, but it still hurt.”

“That sounds rough. I don’t really feel remorse over the fact I killed people. Most of the people I killed were the rubbish of society. Okumura was a greedy businessman who was willing to sell his daughter for power. The principal was a corrupt egg who emotionally blackmailed students to get his way. The SIU director was a corrupt old man who rigged cases and messed with the legal system for his own petty needs. I don’t feel bad about killing them, just that I was foolish enough to let myself be manipulated by Shido to kill them.”

“Well that’s the thing ‘Kechi. You don’t feel bad for murder, but you do feel bad for being stupid enough to be forced to murder people. I didn’t feel bad for killing my sisters when I was just another stupid robot, but now I feel bad for doing it and regret not being able to change my decisions.”

“I would say that a person should not feel guilty for choices they did not make. But your guilt is not something I should assign.”

“I dunno ‘Kechi, it’s fine if you don’t feel bad for killing people. It’s not something we can force on people. It’s better to be honest about it than lie about feeling sorry.”

“Thanks Labrys.”

“No probs ‘kechi!”


	16. Akira's School Life, Akechi Cycles with Chie, and the Sho is About to Begin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter! Whoooo time to begin the plot of my fan story of Persona 5 Arena whoooooooooo.

Akira wasn’t too excited to return to school. Any friends he did have before the conviction quickly cut ties. The last days before he was sent to Tokyo he could hear the rumors among his classmates. He knew he had better friends now but the fact they were hours away and the only one that was nearby was a cat didn’t help.

He felt lonely to be sure but he was comforted by the fact his parents weren’t here. The mere presence of them would ruin his time at Inaba with their strictness. On his first day back to Yasogami he got his uniform on, got Morgana into his bag, and began to walk to Yasogami.

He soon realized he forgot the route and had to use his phone to find his way there to Morgana’s disappointment. He arrived at Yasogami, checked his classroom, and made his way to class early. The younger population of Inaba were either bored out of their minds in the small town or had a way to entertain themselves outside of school. 

In school however the students would gawk at anything new. Akira coming back from a year in the city with a clean record was a new thing to them and exciting. Before class began he was asked by some classmates what ‘life in the city,’ was like and if he saw what happened with the Phantom Thieves. 

He told some clean lies about how his year was ‘nothing special,’ and that he saw the Phantom Thieves and thought they were really cool. To the others in Inaba the Phantom Thieves was a new exciting thing happening in the city and another reason to not stick around in the backwater town. Akira wholeheartedly agreed with that sentiment.

Tokyo was where he earned friends and had adventures. Inaba was a town in the middle of nowhere that had nothing interesting in it. The only reason it got any sort of attention was the nearby blacksmith and the inn. The fog murders were mildly interesting because of the mystery and supernatural elements. Now that he has seen the Metaverse the fog murders seem dull. 

The only good things he had in this town was Morgana and a new friend he made in the weather girl Mariko. 

When class began to paid attention enough to the teacher and didn’t look out the window where Akechi would soon speed past the streets.

**A little before**

“Hey Goro-kun! Do you want to go exercise with me?”

“Sure, I’ll get my bike!”

“Ooh! A challenge, let’s see who can go faster! Chie Satonaka versus a guy on a bike!”

When they began heading around town it was evenly matched. Chie had years of running long distances and Akechi had a bike. They ran at an even speed around Inaba and when they were finished they were both drenched in sweat.

“Breathing *Huff* Hurts *Huff*” said Chie.

“Yea.*huff* I feel. *huff* A little tired,” said Akechi, stumbling towards his bed to flop back onto it.

**At the Entrance of Cipactli**  
**Meanwhile**

Sho was yawning while walking with the other two. They had killed the reaper too many times to count while down there and the amount of shadow materials in their possession was too much to count. Only one thing could get Sho to hurry up right now.

“Mister, mister! The exit is on this floor!” said Jose.

“Really? Well damn let’s run then!” yelled Sho.

‘Finally, it took months to get out of here,’ said Minazuki.

“Yay!” said Kotone, excited to finally get back into the real world.

“Alright, let’s do this,” said Minato.

They finally reached the entrance and Sho paused for a second.

“Wait, ok maybe you and Kotone should head to Inaba and create the Arena Minato? I can stay in Tokyo and deliver the card, get some supplies, and all that stuff.”

“Sure Sho, but I’m going to pick up some food for myself.”

“Maybe we can see what new food they have! Maybe they have a giant burger! Burgerssss,” said Kotone, practically drooling at the thought of a giant burger.

“Heh, sure Koto-chan if you can fit one you can eat a giant burger,” said Minato.

“Thanks Mina-kun!” said Kotone, eyes sparkling.

Kotone stretched and put the sheath on her nagatina while Minato sheathed his sword. 

“Hey Jose?” asked Minato.

“Yes mister?” 

“Could you follow us into the TV world?” 

“Sure! Create an entrance for me there and I’ll appear in no time!” said Jose.

“Great! Now Sho, we’ll get to Inaba and make the arena. Are you good for making preparations here?” asked Kotone.

“Yea, the Sho’s about to start.”


End file.
